A Time Before Fairy Tails
by NeoShadows
Summary: Before Natsu joined Fairy Tail, our favorite little Dragon Slayer roamed Fiore looking for Igneel. From the day Igneel left to the day he joined Fairy Tail, their was nothing but a blank. Until now. Join our rose headed fire mage as he walks the path of a wandering mage, meeting new and old friends in search of his foster father. NatsuxHarem. Get ready for a new Fairy Tail.
1. A Dragon's Tail

**Hello new and old readers! My name is NeoShadows, but some of you might know that already.**

**While I know some of you may be asking why am I writing a new story when I haven't even finished the next of The Story a Dragon, a Knight, and a Fairy Hunter I had to to post this new story up. This story won the poll contest I held last week and I had to take the day to finish the first chapter. Son't worry, I'll get started on the other story later this day and take all day if I have to finish the next chapter.**

**For now enjoy this new story. I'll be exploring all of Fiore and even a few other countries in Natsu's pursuit of finding Igneel. This story will focus on Natsu's adventure of trying to find Igneel while also meeting a few familiar faces from Fairy Tail and other guilds, both light and dark. I love the idea of changing the events of canon Fairy Tail before Natsu even joins the guild. Adds something new that I'm sure no one else has thought of.**

**Don't worry, he'll join Fairy Tail. Eventually.**

**And for the pairing, it's going to be a Harem. Which girls, I don't know. If you want, give me some ideas of which girls to add. Till then, we'll see which girls he attracts on his path.**

**Anyway's, enjoy the new story. This is going to be a big one and full of surprises.**

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**Disclaimer: I do not own the right's to Fairy Tail. Hiro Mashima does. *Sigh* I need a job. Writing stories is fun, but it get me nothing on my salary.**

**Okay, new plan. Learn the art's of robbery, buy a plane ticket to Japan, and rob Mashima blind!**

**All I need is Ten-thousand dollars and a dog who cat eat fire. Why? I don't know. It just sounds cool.**

**. . . . Where am I?**

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**Chapter 1: A Dragon's Tail.**

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Fiore. A country true to it's name. A blooming country where passing's of fabled wizards spread from town to town. And where future mage's will eventually rise up to take place of the old generation of magic to bring in a new era to the magical world where maybe unity can finally be achieved. Names like Laxus, Mystogun, Gildarts, Titania, and Salamander where already well known and would only be the beginning to the new age of magic to come. The future was bright while at the same time dark. As always, where there is light, there is darkness. A struggle of good and evil was in-eventful to bring in change and the struggle would be long one that would be spoken for many ages to come till it too, like the names the brave heroes and heroines who had brought in peace, would be lost in the sands of time.

But before the coming of the future, their was always the past that would shape the tools to destiny. Only this past would suddenly be changed from it's original future by the small and big encounter's of a fire mage.

And that fire mage just so happened to be a fire breathing Dragon Slayer who would spark the coming of the new age of magic to come. He would be true to his magic. Bringing destruction to those in his way that did not understand the power of his flames, no matter how small they were. And hope to those lost in the darkness that was ready to consume them at the tiniest falter.

Natsu Dragneel would one day become the one who would lead both mages and non-mages through the darkness that would consume them all.

Of course, that was all the coming future. The gears of fate, time, and destiny were only now starting to turn slowly. Before that, the man would have to grow up. He was still only a child after all. Going through the heartbreak of abandonment for the second time in his short life.

Funny how a child's unbelievable goal of finding his foster parent who just had to be an almighty entity of flames, would eventually lead him to saving the world.

It was here, in an unknown part of Fiore, that a small, spiky rose colored haired boy, would take the first steps to a future that would bring him joy, happiness, laughter, grief, anger, pain, sorrow, and love.

While also causing mass property damage everywhere he went. No one was safe from the destruction the boy would bring with him.

Oh yeah, this was going to be fun.

* * *

Somewhere far off north of Mt. Hakobe, in a high off cliff surrounded by numerous amount of different foliage, a small boy with spiky rose colored haired began to wake up from his sleep. The light of the sun shone into the cave he sleeping in, resting in an almost nest like patch of grass that was atleast a half a mile wide with random patches of grass burnt black like charcoal from an unknown fire source. The cave was big, it was almost too unnatural how big and deep it was. It looked like it could fit atleast two guild halls inside of it with plenty of room to spare.

Natsu slowly began to wake up, his eye's fighting off the urge to shut back into dream land as he moved around the large patch of burnt grass he called a bed sleepily, "Tou-san." he yawned tiredly revealing the small sharp canines in his teeth, ", could you blow up that annoying sun? It won't let me sleep and every time I try to glare at it, it burns my eyes." he pouted, blinking as he caught the lack of his father inside the cave.

Natsu frowned. That was weird. Usually every time he complained about the giant fireball floating in the sky and told his father to blow it to bit's with his fire, he would get a small smack to head about how he couldn't just blow up the so called sun and that he should stop trying to goad it into a fight. One of these day's he was going to walk up to the sun and kick's it's ass!

Looking around the cave him and his tou-san shared, Natsu couldn't help but feel a small sense of dread make it's way up to his stomach.

Where was he? Did he go out to catch some fish for breakfast? Yeah, that most of been it. The pink haired boy grinned. He was just out getting fish at the bottom of the mountain like he always was. And with that, Natsu threw away any sense of dread he had felt as he began to make his way out of the cave entrance.

"OH NO!" he shouted in alarm before running back inside the cave. His frantic black eyes searched all over the large patch of burnt grass, looking for something till turned to look at the spot he was sleeping at, " Their you are!" he happily grinned, picking up a scarf that was folded as pillow. The scarf was white with a dragon scale like pattern design. He hugged it, feeling small sense of reassurance as he did.

Placing the white scarf around his neck, Natsu began to run off to where he knew his father would be. Ignoring the sense of dread he was sure he had gotten rid off.

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( Lower Mountain side of the cave)

"Tou-san!" Natsu yelled, his voice slightly trembling as he ran alongside a river swimming with many types of fish. His eyes rapidly moved left and right in small panic he searched for his father.

When he had run down the small mountain trail his dad had made for him so that he could also come down to river with him as he fished he was sure would see his dad catching fish in river, maybe even grilling a few thinking he would of known he would of rand down their to find him. Huffing from the long run down the mountain, Natsu was about to shout at his dad for leaving him behind to catch fish when he knew just how much he loved to fish and try out one the new tricks he had shown him when his voice died from his throat.

He wasn't their. His tou-san wasn't their. There wasn't even a small sign that he had been here, not even a small scent of him near the river bed.

"Tou-san?" he whispered as a small gust blew by, blowing a couple of leaves in the wind that eerily danced around the spot he would normally see his father, "Where are you?"

The small sense of dread grew with every passing moment as he stood waiting for his father to show up out of thin air. Nearly an hour had gone by before he started moving again and ran off to try and find his father, calling his name as he looked all around the rocky terrain of his home.

"Tou-san!" why wasn't he answering? He had to be somewhere close by. His father had never left alone before, only to catch food and find some clothes for him to wear but he had gone anywhere without telling him. A lump was beginning to form in his throat as yelled louder for his father, "TOU-SAN! WHERE ARE YOU!"he cried out loud, small tears slowly beginning to form in his eyes.

Tears prickled his onyx black eyes. His stomach growling as he had skipped breakfast in his search. Now wasn't the time to be thinking about food. He needed to find his tou-san.

Hours began to pass by and still no sign of tou-san. Natsu was starting to get tired of all the running around, up and down, the mountain with no luck of finding his dad. He even had gone back to their cave to look for clues of where he had gone. In midst of the books he had read him and taught him with to read, the toy's he had scavenged on one of his trip outside the mountain range that he had played with, the writing utensils he taught how to wright with, Natsu found nothing.

He wanted to cry. But he was a big boy now. Big boy's didn't cry. That's what Igneel, his father, had taught him. To stand strong because crying got you nothing but wasted time. Natsu sniffed back the tears and went back to his search for Igneel.

The scenery around him began to blur as he began to ignore his surrounding's. He didn't care anymore that Igneel had warned him about not leaving the cave unless he was with him, he needed to find him.

_'Where are you, Tou-san?'_ he cried inside his head, his heart feeling as it was being stabbed by a sharp twig, _'Where are you? This isn't funny anymore! I just want to find you so we can go back home and eat grilled fish like we always do! I'll even listen to those boring lessons your always trying to teach me! Just please,' _the tears were finally beginning to drop as he fell on his knee's in exhaustion, his little fists angrily digging into the soft, firm soil of the woods he ran off too unknowingly, "TELL ME WHERE YOU ARE IGNEEL!"

The exhaustion and hunger finally got to poor little Natsu. The whole day he had been running for sign's of Igneel on an empty tank of food, his little feet tiring from all the endless running. He was still a child and while it was impressive that he had gone half the day without eating while running around the small mountain he live in, he still didn't have the stamina to keep on going. No matter how hard he tried to fight off the exhaustion, Natsu still ended up staggering towards a tall oak tree, falling against it's trunk with a thump.

"N-no." he tiredly whispered hoarsely, his voice scratchy from not having a drink all day, "I-I c-can't fall asleep. I need t-to find. . . Igneel." his eyes drooped, succumbing to sleep. Natsu's arms fell limply at his sides as his body shut down and he fell asleep against his will. One thought floating in his mind as he fell asleep.

* * *

_'Where are you, tou-san?' _

The sun shone through the trees of the forest, waking up all the woodland critters to another bright and shining morning.

All except one depressed rosy haired boy.

He was still exhausted from yesterday's event's that he could barely move. He was sore all over and even moving his legs into a more comfortable position stung him. Again, a growl escaped Natsu's aching tummy, practically snarling for something to eat like a mad dog that made him groan.

Even the thought of moving hurt! He didn't know how it was possible, but just thinking about moving to get something to eat hurt his head. The squirrels looking down at him with their nuts wasn't helping his hunger neither. He swore those fuzzy jerks were eating their meal in front of him on purpose just to spite him. It made him angrily growl up the squirrels causing them to jump and run off to safety incase the young boy decided to satisfy his hunger out on them. He huffed as he watched them run away. He wouldn't eat them anyways. Tasted too gammy even when cooked in fire.

Natsu sighed hugging his knee's closer to his chest as the thought of his foster father leaving him hit him. No matter how many times he tried to fool himself into believing that this whole nightmare was a dream it wouldn't do Natsu any good. The pain and exhaustion of running around for his father was all too real, no matter how much it hurt him he couldn't denie it.

Small tears welled up in the young boy's eyes at the thought of being all alone without his father to protect him. That and he didn't even recognize the area he was currently resting in. He had never really left the mountain range before besides the times Natsu had flown around their home with his father.

_'This is all Igneel's fault!'_ the spiky pink haired pouted sniffing back the tears threatening to spill out, _'What kind of father leaves his one and only son all alone in the wilderness? When I find that idiot, I'm going to kick his fat ass! I'm only eight year's old for god's sake! I barely know how to cook a meal that's not basically some wild animal cooked up with my fire.'_ Natsu suddenly licked his lips at the thought of something to eat. The thought of gammy squirrels on a stick roasting on an open fire sounding more appealing to him with each passing minute.

Weakly getting back up on his feet, Natsu decided to go back to his search for Igneel after he had caught something to eat. Their was no use chasing after Igneel on an empty stomach.

Catching the sight of a familiar looking squirrel looking down at him, Natsu glared at the furry creature before said creature blew a loud raspberry at the boy. Natsu growled angrily at his 'enemy' before twitching as the squirrel wagged it's full moon towards him.

By 'full moon' we all know butt.

"What the hell's wrong with you, you furry bastard?" Natsu angrily shouted at the small critter, shaking his fist's threateningly at the squirrel.

A tick mark started to develop on top of Natsu's head as he could of sworn he heard the squirrel laugh in it's own language, holding it's small sides while rolling on the branch it was sitting on in laughter.

A dark grin made it's way to Natsu's face as he cracked his knuckles menacingly. _'That's it. I think I've decided I'm going to have squirrel for breakfast. I know Tou-san always told me not eat the small animals of the mountain range or the forest, but since he's not here right now, I think it would be the perfect time to try out some light meat.'_ the odd sound of a click escaped Natsu's throat as he breathed in a large amount of air, his eye's never leaving the snickering animal. Natsu inwardly smirked preparing to barbecue the ignorant bastard laughing at him before the sound of something whirling towards his head made him stop. A small barrage of acorns rained down upon the rose haired boy's head, the culprits, a pack of squirrels.

"Oww! What the hell?" Natsu frowned in pain as he tried to protect his head from the raining acorns. Turning to look up at the culprits, Natsu felt the twitch in his eye only grow seeing nearly a dozen or so more squirrels sitting on the same branch as his enemy. Oh, so the furry bastard was too much of a chicken to take him on his own was he? Calling for back up, Hah! _'More breakfast for me, I guess.'_ smiling evilly up at the family of squirrels, Natsu felt his stomach agree with him as it growled loudly for food.

The squirrels suddenly looked down at the small boy with a sense of fear, swearing they had heard the loud growl of a beast wanting nothing more then to roast them alive.

Natsu scoffed as he watched the squirrels turn on their tails and run away from him, grinning as he felt the sense of a hunt run through his veins. He always did love a good chase.

Running off after the squirrels, Natsu went completely unaware of the three black cloaked men concealed in the bushy forest moving in the opposite direction. The men paused a second suddenly feeling a small gust of wind pass by them. Frowning, one of the men stopped to look back at what he thought looked like a small pink haired child before scoffing at the thought.

"Did you feel that, Alastor-sama?" asked one of the man wearing a black cloak with ox horns on the top of his hood.

A small smirk concealed under Alastor's cloak made it's way to the man's face, laughing slightly as he could see a small pink dot disappear deeper into the forest, "Nope, it was nothing." he chuckled before turning serious, "Now where are those two new morons you recruited into my little organization, Tetsu?" he questioned dangerously.

The ox hooded man sighed feeling his leader burn holes through his skull in agitation. He never did like newbies he himself didn't pick out, "They said they were getting a little bored, so they wandered off to look for some 'fun', if you know what I mean." Tetsu answered with slight disgust.

" 'Fun'?" Alastor deeply frowned before carelessly shrugging the thought off, "Meh, I don't give a damn. They could be the worst of the worst for all I care, as long as their strong they could do whatever they want. My plans for this country require strength, whether the ones holding said strength have hearts of pitch black or hearts of blinding light I don't care. Power is power and that's what my organization needs."

". . . Their not strong."

"What?" Alastor growled in anger as he turned his eyes to the cloaked 'man' on his right. Unlike Tetsu's hood, gray fox ear's poked out of the hood and 'he' stood up a foot shorter then Alastor reaching up to the middle of his chest. "What did you say, Volpe?" the leader of the group whispered fiercely.

Volpe didn't bat an eye under her hood as she looked up to answer Alastor, ". . . They aren't strong. I had met the two new recruits awhile back before they even caught Tetsu's eye and I had dealt with them easily. Even a weak mage from a guild could deal with them. Trash are trash but even maggot's like them are nothing." the little girl said with a soft voice that chilled even Alastor.

"Goddammit, Tetsu!" Alastor shouted out in anger as he turned his angry eyes at the ox hooded man, "What the hell did I say about bringing in weak dumb ass's into the organization? Did you even test them to see if they were strong or did you just pick them out because of some rumors some of the villagers in the town near here spread out?"

"I was actually going to test them as soon as you met them to gauge their strength until they ran off in boredom. And yes, I did pick them out from the rumors of the village near here. They had spoken in fear of the two dark twins behind the assault of multiple girls, multiple mission poster's already reaching big guild's stationed in Magnolia." Tetsu said patiently ignoring the heated glare pointed at him, "But after learning of their sinful action's, I could careless if they didn't make the cut." a golden light enveloped the man's hands before an elegant long blade with golden trimmings and a silver cross on the bottom of the handle appeared in his hand, "It just give's me more of a better reason to enact god's judgment on them." he said coldly.

Alastor continued to stare angrily at Tetsu before suddenly bursting out laughing, patting the ox hooded man on the shoulder that as he continued to laugh, "You my friend, are one judgmental bastard! But it really doesn't matter now." he chuckled before stopping his laughter and taking one last look at where he saw a mop of spiky pink hair run off to, "Their not going to last long if what Volpe said is true. I'm sure even a little kid will be able to beat those losers!" he grinned before roaring with more laughter.

"Whatever you say, Alastor-sama." both Volpe and Tetsu agreed before they disappeared in a plume of shadows.

* * *

Jumping over a large branch in his way, Natsu continued to chase after the annoying family of squirrels with a smile on his face. The thought's of his father disappearing momentarily escaping his thoughts as he ran after his breakfast. "Hey, you stupid squirrels!" Natsu shouted with a grin, "Why don't you make thing's much more easier for us all if you just stop running! You can't escape the dragon's maw!" he laughed.

Turning a corner near a few trees, Natsu quickly flipped over a group of large rocks, grabbing onto a branch from a tree, he landed on a large wide branch stemming into an almost walkable pathway running all around the forest. Seeing his group of prey running north, Natsu began to jump after his breakfast through branching pathway. The exhaustion of the yesterday's events leaving his system at the thought of food.

"You can't run forever!" grinning Natsu jumped up to grab another branch to swing closer to the squirrels. He flipped in the air before landing on a narrow little pathway in the trees. The squirrels looked back at the small boy with surprise at seeing him keep up with them. The head of the pack of squirrels twitched his nose in anger. Natsu smugly smirked seeing the furry bastards cower in fear of his awesomeness. Now to finish this and get some breakfast.

The squirrels were suddenly startled by the top part of the trees burning like wild fire, the embers falling onto the branching pathway cornering them in. They could of sworn they saw the small flicker of flames coming out of the small fists of the pink haired boy.

"Now let's see what finely crisped squirrel kabobs taste like." Natsu licked his lips hungrily.

About to grill the little critters into a fine forest breakfast Natsu had to suddenly stopped when an ear piercing scream from down below nearly deafen his ear's.

"Noooooo! Please!" the female voice cried terrified, "Let me go! Get your dirty hands off of me!"

"What the hell?" Natsu scratched his head confusingly as he turned his eye's down below the trees to see what was going on. Seeing the small boy distracted, the squirrels made a quick get away.

Looking down Natsu saw two men dressed in black tying a brown haired girl to a tree. One of the men was sleek gray haired man standing at a tall seven foot tall. He was dressed in a dirty black cloak with a few rips under brown loose shirt. His gray long trouser's were wrapped in ropes and odd eerie charms tangling on his belt. The man had yellow eye's that held a dark creepy look that he stared at the girl with an emotion that Natsu didn't like. But what caught Natsu's attention was the the gleaming black ax attached to a belt around his chest. It had a long handle wrapped with tattered bandages around it and a sharp spike on the bottom. Three holes ran along the side of the ax's blade with golden hoops encircling the holes, several foreign kanji etched into the gleaming blade.

The other man Natsu couldn't tell if he was a large plump sack of skin or just fat. He was bald with round eye's and tan skin. The brown tank top he wore was stretched over his fat belly with what looked like scraps of food dirtying the his clothing. Natsu almost laughed at the torn up stretchy pant's the fat man wore, the belt with the same looking charms as the other one made him wonder why he even wore a belt. Just like the other guy he had a dangerously looking weapon laid against his shoulder. It was black mace with spiky red crystals attached to a silver chain that connected to his belt.

Was the that thing Igneel called a circus in town? These guy's looked like freaks!

The tall lanky man with loose gray hair grinned as he tied the last of the rope around the defenseless girl, getting a teary scowl out of her, "That should do it!" he cupped the girl's cheek running his finger's over the delicate that girl didn't like, "Your a fine piece, I'll give you that. But your not as exotic as I was hoping for. The exotic types sell for big Jewels on the slave trade." he laughed.

The man's tied up captive was a girl right around her late teens with wavy brown hair that reached the middle of her back with a white bandanna, gleaming green eye's, and beautiful pale skin. She wore a green summer dress that reached the bottom of her knee's with white knee socks that was torn up in a few places that got the tall man grin hungrily. A golden heart shaped pendant dangled around her neck that could probably sell for a high price on the market.

"Your a waste of human life, you know that right?" she said seethingly.

The man slapped her face a second later as he laughed. He pulled her crying head up by her face to get her to look at his madly grinning face, "What the hell do I care what my plaything thinks of me? All I want to hear out of my toy's are the sweet screams of pain as I break you in for the slave market in Bosko. I can't be selling useless toy's, now can I?"

"Is Zankoku-nii going to have fun again?" the fat man said innocently in a childish voice.

"Yes, Soko." Zankoku licked his lips causing the girl in his hands to flail desperately against the rope tying her to a tree, "After this we'll seal her in our _**Kuku Miryo(Void Charms)**_. Hopefully our new boss will let us sell the rest of our little toy's to the nearest black market." he cruelly laughed jangling the black little charms in shape of a purple box with black little chains wrapped around it. There must have been at least fifteen charms attached to both mens belts.

That guy Tetsu better let them go off to sell these chicks or Zankoku was going to cleave his head off. Zankoku was cruel man when he didn't get to sell his toy's. All lot of head's were chopped off when he didn't get what he wanted.

Zankoku moved his hand lower from the girl's face getting her to start screaming before he put his left hand over the girl's mouth. Tears leaked out of the poor girls mouth as she felt his hand begin to go lower to a place she didn't like.

Just as Zankoku was about to start his fun a loud annoying yell caught the ax man's attention before a small pair of feet kicked him him in the side of his head. He shouted in pain falling to his side from the double kick to head. Cringing from the painful blow, Zankoku turned to his side to look at the dead bastard who dared to hit his face.

A small boy about eight to nine years old with spiky pink hair and lite tan skin grinned smugly down at Zankoku with his hands crossed against his chest. The only thing the kid wore besides the long black rags tied to his waist with some rope was an odd white scaly scarf wrapped his neck.

"Zankoku-nii are you okay?" Soko frowned with his finger pressed against his cheek.

Zankoku growled menacingly at the ignorant little brat stupid enough to interrupt him from playing with his toy. Did the kid want to play hero? Stupid brat. Zankoku had no problems with cutting little kids down.

"Dumb little gaki." picking himself back up, Zankoku grabbed the large black ax strapped to his back to point it threateningly at Natsu, "Are you looking for a death wish or something? Cause I'll gladly give you a dirt nap fifty feet deep in the ground!" he shouted angrily.

Instead of being scared of the menacing blade pointed at him, Natsu grinned wolfishly waving his hand in a 'bring it on' motion, "I have no idea what's going on, but I don't like it. Tou-san always said to follow my gut and it's telling me to kick your ass all the way into the mountains." he really didn't know what was going on. Natsu was still too young to understand the dark lining in Zankoku's words. He was kid for god's sake! But the girl's screams were enough to tell him what these two freaks were doing was wrong.

"What's wrong?" Natsu mocked, "Scared?"

_'Why you stupid little piece of shit.'_ this kid had the utter balls to challenge him into a fight. Zankoku shook his head chuckling darkly. What the hell were they teaching kids these days? How to play hero?

"W-What the hell are you doing?" the brown haired girl said trembling, "Get out of here kid. These guy's are bad men. Didn't your parents ever tell you to run away from bad men?"

"Nope." Natsu said cheerfully before shocking them all as orange-red flames engulfed his small fists, "Tou-san mostly said, if I ever met some bad men, to grill their asses black! He also said to stop burning down the trees around the cave just because I'm feeling like causing trouble, but that had nothing to do with what were talking about." he grinned with his fire glowing in his face.

"Oooooh, pretty." giggled Soko clapping his hands from watching the flames magically appear on the kid's hands.

"Fire magic?" Zankoku whispered in disbelief. How the hell did a kid like him get his hands on fire magic. It wasn't really surprising considering most guilds out their had kid's as young as six already learning how to use magic, but it was still surprising to see some random kid summon fire around his hands without getting burned.

Quickly snapping out of his shock, Zankoku scoffed at the small display of magic in the Natsu's hands, "So what? You think just because you can use a little magic, you can be some sort of super hero? Don't be stupid you little gaki." a black hue of shadowy magic surrounded Zankoku's ax as he grinned from his magic enveloping him in a black aura, "Those little embers of yours won't stand a chance against my shadow magic. Little mages like yourself who think there some big shit just because they can use magic really piss me off. Just before I cut that annoying grinning head off, I'm going to show you just how below of me you are."

"Soko!" turning to look at Zankoku with innocent eye's, Soko looked over at the man in a black aura with confusion, "Watch over the girl for me like a good little nii-san. This won't even take more then a minute."

"Okay Zankoku-nii." Soko obediently nodded.

"Good." the shadow mage smiled before Natsu suddenly had to jump to the side to avoid a blade of purple lined shadows from Zankoku's ax. Zankoku grinned sadisticly before slamming his ax down in front that cracked a long line towards Natsu.

"_**Kage no Hanran(Shadow Uprising)!**_"

Black spikes rose up along the cracked lined heading towards Natsu. Natsu quickly dodged the spikes by running to the side with his fist pulled back to punch the dark man. More spikes rose up from the ground to try and stop the pink haired boy only for Natsu to dodge the spell. Flipping over a sudden black spike in front of him, Natsu landed his blazing fist against Zankoku's defending blade.

"_**Karyu no Tekken(Fire Dragon's Iron Fist)**_!"Natsu shouted. The ground under Zankoku erupted into a crater under the man as he fought to push Natsu off.

The boy's strength was really surprising. Who knew a little kid could punch so hard. Steam flowed from Zankoku's ax blade as a red hue caused his forehead to sweat. How strong were these kid's flames? He was starting to feel a slight burn on his hands.

"Get off you little shit!" Zankoku roared before he blew back Natsu in a black, purple lined sphere, "_**Insei Fera(Negative Blow)**_" the sphere sent Natsu crashing against a tree with a pained shout before he jumped out of the way of a black blade of magic that cut into the bark. Zankoku tsked in slight frustration watching the little mage dodge another blade of his magic. The shadow mage shot off his feet to chop the brat in half with a mighty swing of his ax aimed at his midsection.

Natsu jumped back from the swing to get some distance from the ax before jumping on top of the large bladed ax's flat. Running along the blades hilt, Natsu punched Zankoku in his dirty mug with a blazing fist. "_**Karyu no Tekken(Fire Dragon's Fist)**_!" watching as Zankoku was sent flying past some trees out of his sight, Natsu held his slightly bruised stomach from the _**Insei Fera(Negative Blow)**_.

So, this was how a real fight with another mage felt like? Natsu was starting to get a little fired up. He could already feel the rush of adrenaline rush through his veins. Smoke steamed out of Natsu's pores answering to the boy's feeling of excitement.

Meanwhile, the brown haired girl watched on the battle between the two mages with awe. While she was still terrified of what was going on, she couldn't help but watch the small fight.

That little boy, was actually fighting back against Zankoku. And he wasn't losing! How the hell wasn't he losing? He was just a kid!

"Is Zankoku-nii alright, toy?" sniffed the fat man beside her.

She growled angrily being called toy. She had name you know!

"My name's not 'toy', fat man!" she spat, "It's Carol! And I hope to god that bastard's not alright!" looking back at the pink haired kid, Carol cheered, "Go weird pink headed kid! Kick that guy's ass!"

"Who the hell are you calling weird lady?" Natsu angrily shouted back shaking his fist at the tied girl.

About to march over to the brown haired girl, Natsu's eye's widened as a large stream of black fire tore apart the ground flooding towards him. He was barely given any time to avoid the deadly flames before he was consumed in the dark magic.

"_**Kage no Jigoku(Shadow's Inferno)**_." Zankoku grinned darkly as he watched his spell turn Natsu into nothing but ash in the wind. Walking out of the trees, Zankoku spat at the floor as he made his way towards Soko. "Soko," he smiled warmly, "Finish the bad little boy for me."

"Okay." the bald, child-like man nodded before he swung his crystal spike mace towards the black inferno by it's chain, "_**Kokyo Ana(Boom Mine)**_."

Carol was left to watch the trapped little boy inside the burning inferno erupt into a shower of earth and fire as the chained mace blew up in a large explosion that slightly shook the ground beneath their feet. The twisted laugh from Zankoku only made the tears streaming down her cheeks all the more real.

_'This has to be some twisted dream!'_now of this had to be real. A little kid did not just die trying to protect her. She wasn't about to be sold as some twisted perverts slave. None of this was real. _'Please, some one, wake me up!'_

Zankoku scoffed as he watched his flames continue to reduce the little boy into nothing, "Stupid little gaki. To think he actually thought he kick my ass." suddenly hissing in pain from the second degree burn on his left cheek, Zankoku had to give the kid one thing, he had one hell of a scalding punch.

"Now, where were we?" Zankoku licked his lip's hungrily as he made his way back to the tied up girl.

Carol shut her eye's not wanting to believe any of this was happening. It was just some twisted nightmare._ 'I just want to wake up! Some one, save me!'_

_Munch, munch, munch._

"What the hell?" frowned Zankoku as he turned towards his brother, "What the hell are you eating Soko? I thought I told you to stop eating while we were working."

Soko shook his head, "I'm not eating. Nii-san told me not to eat any."

Then what the hell was that sound?

"Bleh! These flames taste a little bit bitter."

Everyone was left baffled as the burning inferno swallowing Natsu suddenly blew back and began to spiral into his mouth. His stomach blew up like a balloon as Natsu inhaled the black and orange-red blaze into his stomach before finally eating the last of the spell. He smirked wiping his mouth with the back of his hand and burping a small flame.

The flames Igneel were much better. But he was starting to feel light headed without anything in his stomach. Even if this guy's flames tasted a bit bitter they were enough to fill his stomach for the moment. Natsu patted his ballooned stomach satisfied before it returned to it's shape as flames rushed out of his body in a ring of fire.

"What. . . did you just do?" Zankoku whispered in stunned silence watching the flames pour out of the kid without hurting him.

That wasn't regular fire magic. Zankoku had met a number of fire mages before and none of them could produce flames from their body parts. And even if they could, this kid was a kid! He shouldn't even be alive after his last spell.

Natsu looked confused at the gray haired man's question, "What? You mean eating fire?" he scratched his head, "What about it? You can eat fire too, can't you?"

_'Who the hell eats fire?'_ they all shouted in their heads.

". . . Does it taste good?" Soko licked his lips hungrily.

Natsu smirked as he pulled back his hands enveloped in fire all the way to his elbows "Here, try a taste of my new spell I just made up!" he shouted before two waves of fire in an 'x' pattern shot off towards Soko, "_**Karyu no Kosa Tsubasa(Fire Dragon's Crossing Wings)**_!"

"Soko!" Zankoku shouted in alarm as he watched Soko get hit by the crossing flames sent barreling him into a tree where he lay knocked out. A dark glare made it's way to his face as he madly swung his ax at Natsu sending blade after blade of shadow magic at him, "_**Kuro Katto-ha(Black Tearing Waves)**_!"

Dodging the sloppy spell of black blades, Natsu ran under Zankoku's large ax to slam his fist under the man's chin sending him flying off his feet. Zankoku fell onto his back with a pained grunt. How the hell was some little kid barely reaching his waist able to knock him off his feet? Pulling himself back with the help of his ax, Zankoku rubbed his chin feeling a slight burn were the brat hit him. A kid his age shouldn't even be able to have that kind of strength.

Not giving Zankoku any time to get himself time to think, Natsu ran over to the man only to flip over his head to slam him face first into the ground with a scorching hot heel, "_**Karyu no Kagitsume(Fire Dragon's Claw)**_!"

"Get the fuck off!" Zankoku roared pushing Natsu off with flare of his shadow magic, "_**Insei Fera(Negative Blowback)**_!"

Natsu quickly jumped over the black sphere only to be slammed into the ground by multiple shadowy fists. He groaned feeling the fists dig into his back before flaring his body with fire just in time to move away from the shadow mage's ax. The bladed weapon split the ground, missing Natsu causing Zankoku to gain a look of blistering anger.

Mind being clouded by anger, Zankoku fired off spell after spell of shadow magic at the pesky little pink haired boy. Why. Won't. He. Die! Every spell he sent the boy's way he dodged. Like he had dodged bigger attacks. How the hell was a kid like this alive!

"He's doing it." Carol whispered in awe as she watched Natsu avoid the blades and waves of shadow magic with a excited grin, "What kind of little kid can fight against a dark mage and eat fire like it was nothing? It's like some kind of fairy tale."

Zankoku cut off his barrage of spells to ran over to Natsu with the intent to cut his head off. He swung his ax in a horizontal wave that Natsu jumped back from to avoid the flashing steel. Another swing for his head made Natsu duck under the ax. Zankoku snarled seeing the spiky headed brat dodge every swing of his ax. Raising his ax up, Zankoku dropped the blade over Natsu's small body to split him in half.

Small blazing hands caught the descending blade as Natsu blew a raspberry a in the tall man's face. Zankoku was pissed. This wasn't some normal little kid. Putting more force behind his blade, Zankoku started to snarl like some crazed animal feeling his ax struggle to split the kid open. The kid was pissing him off more then he had ever felt.

"I'm tired of this stupid thing." Natsu pouted getting a raised eyebrow before the shadow mage watched his ax's blade start to melt from the flames in engulfing Natsu's hands, "Their, all better!" Natsu happily grinned.

The blade melted into a fine puddle silver liquid causing Zankoku to drop what was left of his weapon to the ground.

"What the hell are you?" Zankoku shook with anger and a bit of fear. "That ax cost me one hundred fifty-thousand Jewels! It was suppose to be made with the best steel money could buy! How the hell does some gaki melt my ax into nothing but a puddle!" left with nothing but his bare hands, Zankoku kicked Natsu away before he began to focus all of his magic into his hands.

An aura of darkness wildly flared out from the shadow mage, cracking the ground under him from the magical build up in his hands. A look of insanity overcame Zankoku as he called on even more magic to kill the annoying pink haired pest. Even if he ended up ill from the using the last of the magic in his system, he was going to kill this little monster. Just to settle the madness in his eye's.

Natsu coughed furiously feeling his stomach bruise from Zankoku's kick. After pulling himself of the tree bark, he caught the smell of something vile in the air. The smell made Natsu feel a bit sick to stomach. The shadows under him began to be pulled towards Zankoku as Natsu saw the odd black purple lined magic in the man's hands. Teeth snapped as the magic shaped into the head of what looked like a dragon. Wisps of black magic wavered from Zankoku's body, he grinned arrogantly at the stunned look in Natsu's face thinking he was in awe of his spell.

"It's over you little piece of shit." Zankoku laughed madly, "It took me forever to steal this spell from one of the dark guilds nearby but it was worth it. This spell steals the shadows from everything in the area and feeds on it like some beast. And seeing as the sun's out, my spell is powerful enough to take on an S rank mage with all the shadows it's feeding on!" red eye's narrowed as the dragon head in Zankoku's hand's grinned, it's teeth snapping at Natsu hungrily. "It's over kid! Get ready to be devoured by the darkness! _**Kokugatsu: Eiju Abare(Black Moon: Shadows Rampaging Beast)**_!" the spell in the shadow mage's hand's howled before charging out towards Natsu with it's body manifesting into a slithering dragon like snake. It tore apart the earth under it as it shot off, it's wispy arms popping out from it's sides looking like some grotesque beast.

Natsu stood still watching the dark spell rushing towards him, worrying Carol at the way Natsu wasn't doing nothing to avoid the spell.

"What do you think your doing kid? Get out of there!" she shouted.

Instead of listening to the brunette, Natsu smirked before putting him hands over his mouth to create a funnel as his cheeks began to puff up. "_**Karyu no Hoko(Fire Dragon's Roar)**_!" orange-red flames spewed out of Natsu's mouth like a jet that met Zankoku's shadowy beast head on.

A loud boom kicked up a gust of wind as the two spells fought. Zankoku struggled to push back the powerful flames fighting against his spell as he sweated in concentration. None of this was making any fucking sense! _**Kokugatsu: Eiju Abare(Black Moon: Shadows Rampaging Beast)**_ was suppose to of devoured the brat! Why the hell was it struggling to push back the little brat's flames? How the hell was he even breathing fire! His feet began to skid from the flames beginning to burn through his beast. He grit his teeth. _'What the hell are you?'_

"It's like he's a dragon." Carol smiled feeling the pleasant heat of Natsu's spell from her spot.

Zankoku's eye's widened in feared shock, the flames devoured at least three-fourths of his slithering beast leaving him with only a feet away from the blazing jet of fire. His whole body sweated from the heat of the flames as it came closer to burning him alive. _**Eiju Abare(Shadows Rampaging Beast)**_ finally died away making him have to coat his hands with shadow magic to hold back _**Karyu no Hoko(Fire Dragon's Roar)**_ with his bare hands. The flames still burned his hands no matter how much he tried to use his magic to protect him until he couldn't hold back the spell no more.

As he was flooded with the almighty roaring flames of some spiky pink haired kid, Zankoku could swear he was being devoured by the flames of a dragon. Engulfed by Natsu's roar he could only curse Natsu to the deepest parts in hell before disappearing within the flames.

_'Fucking little bastard. I hope you rot in hell one day just so I can kick your ass.'_

Zankoku was engulfed in a sea of fire that raged on for a couple of seconds before Natsu's spell died down. The shadow mage dropped to his knee's covered from head to toe in red burns, his clothes were nothing but burnt rags that smoked. His mouth was opened in a soundless scream before he fell on his stomach surrounded by small flickering flames.

"Heh. . .how. . . do you. . . like that!" Natsu grinned gasping from the drain of using too much magic. Igneel did always tell him that _**Karyu no Hoko(Fire Dragon's Roar)**_ was too much for him with his current magical reserves. It took too much magic to keep the flames going and drained him of half of his magic.

Ignoring the pain in his stomach and the weariness from using too much magic, Natsu slowly made his way over to the tied girl near the trees. Natsu summoned a small jet of fire on his fingertip to burn through the ropes tying the brunette before he suddenly found himself in the girls arms being smothered to death by her developing chest.

Sigh. Lucky little bastard. Too bad he was still too young to enjoy the bountiful hug of cleavage.

"!" Carol happily cried ignoring Natsu's pleas to stop, "Your my hero! How did you do that? Who are you? And why do you have pink hair?"

"Itai. It hurts." the soft flesh pressing into his face somehow wasn't helping.

Again. Lucky bastard.

"Oh, I'm sorry." Carol sheepishly apologized dropping Natsu on his feet. She smiled at the small boy before remembering something important. "Sorry, I don't even know your name. What's your name?" she asked politely.

Ignoring the fact the girl infront of him nearly suffocated him to death, Natsu grinned as he pointed to himself proudly, "My name's Natsu Dragneel." he smiled brightly getting a small giggle out of Carol, "And I'm the strongest fire mage in the entire mountain side! Igneel said so." he said simply.

"Natsu Dragneel?" smiling, Carol ruffled Natsu's hair getting an irritated growl out of the small mage. To think she was saved from a horrible fate by a little kid. A kid who could breath fire and eat fire like a dragon. Natsu Dragneel. Her little savior.

A loud growl caught Carol's attention as she looked down to see Natsu laugh sheepishly with his hands clutching his black and blue stomach in hunger. She frowned seeing the bruised skin and few other bruises and small cuts over Natsu. He was really hurt but it looked like all that matter to him was his empty stomach. He really was a little kid if he was ignoring his wounds.

"Are you hungry?" she grinned causing Natsu to look away embarrassingly with a blush on his face, "You know if your hungry you can just say so. How about this!" she clapped her hands together, "As your reward for saving me from that dirty pervert and that fat ass, how about I get you something to eat back at my place. I'm sure my parents won't mind."

Grinning widely at the thought of food, Natsu was about to jump at the offer before a few knocks on his head knocked him out.

"Natsu!" Carol screamed in alarm before she looked down at the small objects that knocked him out into her arms, "Are those. . . acorns?" she frowned confusingly.

The small giggling chatter of small animals suddenly caught Carol's attention as she turned to look up at the tree's above her. A family squirrels sat on top of the branches rolling on their sides laughing down at the pink haired mage knocked out with swirly eye's. That was. . . strange. Did the squirrels knock him out? Why?

Carol sighed deciding to just forget about the squirrels to walk over to the unconscious bald man to look for rope to tie them to a tree. Today was really weird. Getting kidnapped by two perverts and being saved by a small pink haired kid who could eat fire was too much excitement for her.

Somehow, she felt like this was only the beginning of her strange day's to come.

Finished tying both dark mages up, Carol picked Natsu up over her shoulder as she made her way back to town. Ignoring Natsu's unconscious mumbling that made her sweat dropped.

"Stupid furry bastards. All I wanted to do was eat you."

Strange kid indeed.

* * *

Watching Carol walk away with Natsu back into town, a shadowy figure laughed quietly to himself before he vanished into a plum of darkness.

"What do you know. Volpe was right. So much for the 'Dark Twin's'. Natsu Dragneel, your starting to earn my interest."

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_**Magical Item's **_

_**Kuku Miryo(Void Charms):**_ A purple flat box wrapped in black spiky chains. This magical dark charm is able to trap the victim into it's possession by sucking them into a pocket dimension that keeps them in a deep sleep. The person trapped inside the charm won't wake up until their released from the charm by the user and even then it takes up to three hours for them to awake. A forbidden charm used mostly for slave trade.

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_**Spell List**_

_**Kage no Hanran(Shadow Uprising):Shadow Magic**_: The mage strikes the ground with their hand or weapon coated in magic to summon rising black spikes of shadows. This spell is used for keeping the enemy at bay and stopping them in their tracks.

_**Insei Fera(Negative Blow):Shadow Magic**__: _This spell is used for blowing back the enemy. The mage creates a black sphere of magic that shoot's out towards it's target before trapping them inside the sphere and slamming to an object. It can also cause blunting damage to the area hit by the spell.

_**Kage no Jigoku(Shadow's Inferno):Shadow/Fire Magic**__: _A strong fire spell created by shadow magic that can reduce the enemy into ash. It's black purple lined fire is created by engulfing a small flame in Shadow Magic that turns it into a raging inferno that burns everything in it's way. The mage would have to know a bit of Fire Magic to learn this move.

_**Kuro Katto-ha(Black Tearing Waves):Shadow Magic**__: _A spell where the mage sends wave after wave of black bladed Shadow Magic using a bladed weapon. The spell is great when trying to cut into multiple enemies but fail when using it against only one as it becomes easy to dodge the blades coming in one direction.

_**Kokugatsu: Eiju Abare(Black Moon: Shadows Rampaging Beast):Dark/Shadow Magic**__: _This spell takes nearly all of a mage's magic. That's because if it is used incorrectly by a mage who doesn't understand it's full use, it will suck out all their magic in one use. _**Kokugatsu: Eiju Abare(Black Moon: Shadows Rampaging Beast)**_ is a spell that is used almost like a whip where the slithering dragon is swung by the mage's hand to tear apart the enemy. Only a moderate amount is needed to manifest the spell beast and is needed to be pump with magic to keep using it. Charging all the mage's magic into the spell to send it shooting like a projectile spell is another use, but it becomes less stable and if met with a stronger spell it would dissipate back into nothing.

_**Kokyo Ana(Boom Mine):Weapon Mace Spell**__:_The mage throws, swings, or smashes their mace into an object or person and upon contact, violently explodes with the use of Fire Magic or Explosive Lacrima.

_**Karyu no Tekken(Fire Dragon's Iron Fist):Fire Dragon Slayer Magic**_: The dragon mage engulfs their fist's with Fire Magic which adds burning effects to their punches. Their punches also increase in strength which can send a mage flying away.

_**Karyu no Kosa Tsubasa(Fire Dragon's Crossing Wings):Fire Dragon Slayer Magic**_: Engulfing their arms up to their elbows with flames, the mage crosses their arms in an 'x' before sending a crossing wave of fire magic at their enemy.

_**Karyu no Kagitsume(Fire Dragon's Claw):Fire Dragon Slayer Magic**_: Fire is ignited on the mage's feet adding more power to their kicks and a burning affect.

_**Karyu no Hoko(Fire Dragon's Roar):Fire Dragon Slayer Magic**_: The mage fills up their lungs with Fire Magic before roaring out a jet of Fire Magic at the enemy. The power behind this spell depends on how much magic is stored within the lungs.

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**I need OC's! I got a couple of character's already set up, but I would like some help creating bad guys and extra characters. And idea's would be awesome. **

**As you can see, I added a two new thing's to my story writing and that would be the Magic Item list and spell list. Just in case you might want to borrow the spell's or want to know what they do. **

**Updates might take a while, not because I can't write them or I got writers block, but because my sister hogs the laptop. This thing is the only computer in my home that let's me type. But don't worry, my sister has summer school this whole month. I got more time to write now!**

**Read and Review.**

**NeoShadows fading out.**


	2. A New Friend and a Tale of Sin

**Hello loyal fans! NeoShadows is back!**

**Hope none you thought that I would only write one chapter then abandon it. The fact that I just updated this story should tell you all I don't plan on just leaving this story to rot. Oh dear god no, I got too many good ideas for this story to just leave it.**

**Anyways, it seems none of you got it right on who will appear in this chapter. Only two readers got it right and that was only because I helped them out. My bad on my part, I didn't really give you all a good enough hint in the latest chapter of The Story of a Dragon, a Knight, and a Fairy Hunter. **

**A lot of you had good ideas on who should be in Natsu's harem. And some of you gave me awesome ideas for characters and types of magic I can use. I'd like to thank Arvingen and Animefan29 for their ideas on OCs and magic. Arvingen, I used two of your OCs so look out for them. I only changed the OC with the enchantment magic but you'll recognize the female OC.**

**Man, this chapter was fun. Especially the ending of the chapter. It was so full of emotion. You're all going to hate me for the cliff hanger. But it seems I'm the king of leaving you hanging and coming back. My cliff hangers are the bomb.**

**Enjoy the story my people!**

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**Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to Fairy Tail. It belongs to Hiro Mashima.**

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**Chapter 2: A New Friend and a Tale of Sin.**

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Bright light shone through the window of the room Natsu was sleeping in waking him up. Wiping the sleep from his eye's Natsu yawned before looking around with half lidded eye's around the plain white room he was in.

Where the heck was he? The last thing he remembered was chasing some squirrels for breakfast before fighting some freaks. Why was he even in the forest anyway? Igneel had told him not to leave the mountain range.

_'Igneel.'_ Natsu thought sadly as he suddenly remembered why he was far from his home. His foster father had left him all alone for unknown reasons and he had tried to find him. Sadly he had worn himself out in his search and collapsed on a tree in the forests far from the mountain range he lived on since he could remember.

After that things began to spiral out of his control after Natsu picked a fight with a squirrel and it's family and ran after it for breakfast. Soon after that, he had found two circus looking weirdos harassing some girl before getting into a fight with them.

Natsu grinned thinking back on his first fight with another mage. Igneel had taught him that the magical energy he had possessed was common among mages, certain individuals who could absorb the weird eter-whatever from the air around them to use awesome spells to fight. While he was still a kid, Natsu was still able to beat a mage way older then him with ease. Igneel's training may have been hell but they definitely paid off.

Feeling a slight sting on his abdomen, Natsu frowned noticing some bruises from his fight with. . .

Wait, who was that guy again?

Natsu scratched his head in thought thinking back on his fight with the dirty looking white haired man with the giant ax. It was Zan-something. Meh, who cares. He was probably out there crying over the fact he had lost to someone way cooler then him. Natsu puffed out his chest feeling a sense of smugness from winning his first fight. Fighting Igneel never gave him a chance when he had sparred his father. Many would understand how hard it was to fight someone older then them but in Natsu's case it was more like fighting someone who had been alive long enough to walk the same ground as the dark mage Zeref.

The small pink haired boy decided he had enough lying down in bed that was not his own. His bed mostly consisted of a giant nest with soft hay and leaf big enough for a dragon. So with a quick stretch of his sleepy limbs Natsu jumped out of bed throwing off the covers. He ignored the small pain of his bruises as he looked for the door of the small room he was in.

To tell the truth, this was actually the first time Natsu had ever been in the room of a house. The only reason he knew what a house was due to Igneel teaching him all about the outside world from inside their cave. He still had trouble writing and reading stuff but he definitely remembered learning about the building outside the mountains.

The room was white with enough room to fit a couple of people inside. Strange pictures of what looked like some of that medical mumbo jumbo his foster father had taught him about were hanged around the room with odd devices looking like they would hurt. The bed he was sleeping on had some iron railing on the side of the bed for keeping rolling sleepers from falling off. The room had an odd scent of smelled like medicine to it. Natsu hated medicine. The one's Igneel had always found always tasted bitter and yucky.

Spotting the light brown door to the room Natsu quickly made his way to the exit before suddenly stopping noticing something was missing around his neck. He turned his eye's back to where he was sleeping quickly noticing his trademark scarf next to a stall next to the bed that ran over to. Wrapping the scarf around his neck securely before making his way out of the white room.

Walking around the hall of the house he was in, Natsu was caught up with his thought's on what he was going to do next. He could go back to the mountain and wait for Igneel to come back. But who knew how long that would take. A small sense of dread made it's way to Natsu's heart thinking he might never see his father ever again.

He never knew his real parents since Igneel had found him out in the mountain forests abandoned out in the night in only a bundled blue cloth protecting him from the cold. He didn't really care much about his real parents or who they were. He had Igneel and that was that mattered.

But it looks like he had abandoned him too.

Tears gathered in Natsu's eye's that he wiped away with a growl. Igneel would never leave him! He swore to always be their for him. He was his son and he was his father. A father would never abandon their child all alone in the world.

Wherever he went, Natsu was going to find him. He swallowed down the sadness starting to grip his small heart swearing to find his father. Igneel would never leave him without a reason. Whatever that reason was, Natsu was going to make sure he told him what it was. Even if he had to kick his ass to get an answer.

_'But, where do I start?'_ Natsu thought. He didn't even where the heck he was. He passed out from getting hit in the head from some stupid squirrels. His head was sore after the fight with the shadow mage and the acorn that hit his head must of hurt more then he thought. Natsu felt his eye twitch in anger thinking back on the annoying animals. When he decided on where he was going to go next he was going to make sure he grilled him some squirrels before leaving.

Too busy with his own thoughts, Natsu was unprepared for the familiar feeling of being suffocated from a brunette's hug. Natsu's face was once again buried in soft flesh as Carol hugged her little hero.

Poor Natsu. Your cuteness with the opposite sex will cause you many painful yet hilariouse situations to come.

"You're awake!" Carol cheered hugging the life out of Natsu.

After she had brought the strange little boy home where her father could tend to his wounds she had been worried about the boy. Carol was indebted to Natsu who had saved her from some sick perverts. Never had she seen such display of magic before in her life. The kid actually ate fire and blew it out like a dragon! Granted she should have been freaked out about that but she didn't care.

"Who the hell are you!" Natsu shouted in alarm as he wriggled out of the hug. He dropped down on his feet to stare at the brunette haired girl who looked sheepishly down at the boy she attacked with her hug.

"I'm sorry little guy." Carol laughed in embarrassment before looking down at his bruises with worry, "Are you sure you should be moving around with your injuries? Tou-san said you might have some internal bruising after your fight with the 'Dark Twins'."

Natsu tilted his head confusingly at the word 'internal bruising' getting Carol to have to hold back the urge to glomp him. _'Kawaii!'_, "Internal bruising? What's that?" he asked in confusing.

"It's when the tissue under your skin is damaged and bruises. It can really hurt when you move around with internal bruising so you shouldn't be moving around too much." she answered in concern before moving back into the room Natsu was sleeping in and coming out with a roll of white medical tape. Asking Natsu to lift up his arm's a bit Carol began to roll the tape over his black and blue stomach. Her father had taught her when a patient had heavy bruises to apply his special medical tape over the damaged wound.

Natsu sighed in content feeling a cool soothing feel wash over his wounds from the odd bandages. Like she had placed ice over the bruises.

"This is my Tou-san's special little invention he created for reliving bruises. _**Shimo Hoso(Frost Wrap)**_, it's a special medical tape infused with bit's of ice magic in it's stitches to heal the injuries faster. You should be better in no time, hopefully by the time my parent's find your Kaa-san and Tou-san." she smiled gently finishing wrapping the magical bandages around his bruises.

"Thanks . . ."

"Carol, Carol Melody." she introduced herself standing back up.

Natsu smiled gratefully at the nice lady who bandaged his bruises. Suddenly smelling something delicious Natsu drooled in hunger as he felt himself lifted off his feet by his nose as he followed the wonderful scent. He had just woken up from collapsing from lightheadedness from not eating and his stomach was barking up a storm for something to eat.

Carol giggled seeing the odd pink haired kid follow his nose to where she knew her mother was making breakfast before following the small fire mage into the kitchen.

Running into what he guessed was the kitchen, Natsu felt his mouth water smelling the tasty scent of fish and eggs. His eye's scanned the small kitchen for the origin of the smell before his eye's landed on a woman humming in front of a stove. The women had wavy chocolate brown hair that cascaded down her neck to her shoulders. She wore a pink apron over a white sleeveless blouse and long, fitted green dress with brown sandals. Hearing the odd growl of an animal, the women curiously looked over her shoulder to see a drooling spiky pink haired boy wearing a white scaled scarf staring hungrily at her direction. She giggled seeing his eye's sparkle as she moved the pan of food she was cooking away from the stove to the wooden table in the middle of the room.

"Hungry?" she teased setting breakfast for the young boy.

Natsu nodded furiously before running over to the table to devour the tasty looking meal with gusto.

Carol looked curiously down at the breakfast finding it odd, "Fish and egg's?" she said with a raised eyebrow.

"Yup!" she happily smiled ruffling the hungry fire mage playfully. " He looked so skinny I though it be nice to put some meat on those tiny little bones of his."

"Who you calling tiny lady?" Natsu growled with half a fish in his mouth.

"You silly." Carol's mother gushed pinching the his cheek. "You're so cute! If you weren't hurt I would of scooped you up in my arms and hugged the living stuffing out you!" she squealed resisting the urge to glomp the pink haired boy.

Natsu shivered seeing an odd look enter the older looking brunette's eye's. Like she wanted to devour something sweet to her hearts content. It slightly frightened Natsu as he kept a wary eye on the women who was doing her best from cuddling the cute little fire mage.

"Ella, you're scaring the boy." an older voice sighed walking into the kitchen dinning room.

The scent of smoke caught Natsu's attention as turned to look over at the man leaning on the door side of the room. The man had short silver hair reaching his neck parted enough to reveal his forehead which had a scar running down the left side of his face, matching the same scar on his glasses lens. He wore an open doctor's coat that reached down to his ankles over an odd shirt that looked like it was stitched together from two torn in half black and white shirts. He also wore black pants with scary sharp scalpels in little pockets adorning his black belt with white studded medical crosses. His green eye's lazily peered over at the small fire mage stuffing his face while also staring back at him challengingly, the cigaret in his mouth twitching slightly as he grinned.. The man chuckled to himself seeing the boy look at him like an enemy or something he just wanted to beat up out of boredom.

_'Strange kid indeed.'_ he nodded to himself.

_'He feels funny.'_ Natsu thought to himself sensing some odd form of magic from the glasses wearing man. He didn't feel anything close to the other two mages he had fought. While their magic was sick but other wise weak this mans magic felt a lot more. . . . overwhelming?

. . . No, that wasn't the word to describe him. Igneel's magic felt way more overwhelming. Natsu couldn't describe the feeling of the man's magic in words but he did know that the man was hiding something. Like he was smothering a very powerful flame from turning into an inferno.

Meh, oh well. He still take him on if he wanted to.

Placing the last bits of food down for the hungry Natsu, Ella turned towards her husband with sweet smile completely opposite of the dark aura surrounding her, her eye's glowing an ominous red that scared Natsu enough to start choking on his food.

"Kosei, dear." she said sweetly causing the silver haired man's cigar to go limp, his face still calm and composed despite the utter fear crawling up his heart. "What did I say about smoking? You yourself know more then anybody how harmful that silly habit of yours is. I'm tired of our home smelling like an ash tray half the time." hearing Natsu start to choke on what she thought was the smoke of Kosei's cigar, Ella's face turned sickeningly sweet, her eye's closed with an angry tick mark marking her head. "For god's sake dear, there is a child in our presence. Do you know how harmful it is to be smoking with a young, impressionable boy around. Oh, wait you do, you are a doctor after all."

_'Dad is so screwed.'_ Carol thought dryly helping Natsu with his choking fit.

"Calm down Ella." Kosei said calmly raising his hand to scratch the side of his head, "There are a lot worse thing's out there then second hand smoke. He doesn't even seem to be affected by it. He was just choking on food. I mean," he chuckled, "it's not like he'll want to start smoking after seeing someone else doing it."

". . . . . Can I have some of that?" Natsu asked, tilting his head innocently while pointing to the small embers on the oddly dressed doctors burning stick. He had no clue what a 'cigaret' was, but he did know it had fire on it. He still felt a bit of magical power drained from his fight with the 'dark twins' and some fire would hit the spot.

Before Kosei could think of a way to save himself from his wife's wrath he suddenly had his cigaret snatched away from his lips. His eye's then met his wife's gaze, full of disappointment before he was hit in the head by her trusty frying pan. The metal skillet rang once it sent it's target falling face first to the floor with a pained grunt, it's wielder's sweet smile never wavering.

"Ouch." Carol grimaced along with Natsu who was freaked out that the kind lady that had made him food was terrifying, "That's going to leave a bump or two."

Kosei shook away the strike to the head as he stood back up nonchalantly as if his wife never hit him. He had honestly been hit harder by his loving wife for less serious things then smoking. A small trickle of blood ran down his forehead from the metal pan that made him sigh before resting his right palm on head where he felt the origin of the blood.

"Small gash, two inches long and a few centimeters deep." he said boredly, his palm glowing a feint green that caught Natsu's attention before pulling it away. Moving over to the dinning table to grab a napkin he wiped away the small trickle of blood before grinning down at the pink haired boy who caused him the pain on his skull. "Thanks a lot, kid. Now I probably won't be allowed to smoke for a at least a week. I hope you're proud of yourself."

"I'm always proud of myself." Natsu grinned proudly, Kosei's eye twitching madly at the look of smugness in the kid's eyes. "It's not my fault the nice, scary lady kicked your ass."

Natsu then found himself victim to the nice, scary lady's skillet as his head smacked into the table from his foul mouthed comment.

"Who taught you such foul language?" Ella scolded as Natsu rubbed the bump on his head, "You're too young to know such a bad word."

"Itai! It hurts." he groaned. "All I wanted was some fire to eat. Is that so bad?"

Kosei stared dully at Natsu wondering if he heard right that he wanted to eat fire. You didn't have to be a doctor to know that eating fire was a fatal health risk that only an idiot would attempt.

Carol laughed sheepishly seeing her parents look at her questioningly at the pink haired boy's odd request for fire. She honestly didn't believe he could eat fire but she had seen if with her own eyes while he was supposedly being reduced to ash by Zankoku's spell.

"Did I forget to tell you guy's that Natsu can eat fire?" she smiled nervously.

They blinked once. Twice. Three times. Ella cleaned out her ear seeing if she had anything in her ear. Nothing was in her ear so she must of heard right. Both Ella and Kosei turned to look over at the smiling pink haired boy who nodded proudly despite not even listening to what they had just heard.

And that's when Ella couldn't take it anymore and dove straight over at Natsu to hug the living stuffing out him.

Ignoring the fact his wife was snuggling Natsu against her chest, Kosei hummed in thought as he thought back to where he had heard similar cases of a person eating their own magic. Doctor he may be, but he had close ties to certain magical records due to his past life. And he had once found a very interesting file about a certain type of rare lost magic that was supposedly extinct.

"Dragon Slayer, huh?" that was an extremely rare form of lost magic. The only reason being that was due to the to the ones who taught the ancient magic were they themselves not real.

How did someone so young even know Dragon Slayer magic?

Freeing himself from Ella's hug, Natsu nodded up at the silver haired doctor, "Yup! I'm a Dragon Slayer. Pretty cool, huh?" he grinned.

Kosei smirked as his little guess was proven right. _'He heard me even though I whispered it. That is impressive to say the least. The body close to that of a dragon. How interesting.'_

"Dragon Slayer?" Carol frowned wondering what they were talking about. "What's that?"

"A mage taught under the fabled dragon's to slay dragons. Their bodies made to take on the characteristics of dragons with lungs that can breath their respective elements." Kosei explained taking a seat next to the pink haired Dragon Slayer. Pulling up the fire mage's mouth Kosei pointed to the sharp dragon like canines that were sharp enough to cut his finger, "Known as the mages who could slay a dragon with their bare hands they are basically dragons in human form. And judging by the fact he says he can eat fire, I'm guessing he's a fire Dragon Slayer. Correct?" he asked letting ago of Natsu's mouth.

Wiping his mouth to get the taste of the man's hands out of his mouth, Natsu nodded his head, "Yeah, my Tou-san taught me how to use Dragon Slayer magic when I was five. I was bored one day and while Tou-san was grilling fire with his breath I asked him to teach me how to do that. After that I've been taught how to breath fire, eat fire, and fight with fire. It's so cool! I can't even get burned anymore now that I've learned how to control fire!"

"Your Tou-san taught you Dragon Slayer magic?" Ella frowned. From what Kosei said only dragons were capable of teaching Dragon Slayer magic. Did that mean his father was a dragon?

"Uh-huh, Tou-san is awesome! He can breath fire a mile wide and he can fly! He's the best Tou-san in the entire world!"

_'He can fly?' _they all thought dumbfoundedly.

"And where is your Tou-san?" Carol asked only to regret her question as the little fire mage's happy grin disappeared and was replaced by a sad frown.

"I. . . I don't know." he whispered sadly feeling his eyes sting with unshed tears before he angrily sniffed them back, "But he didn't abandon me! I know that for sure! I-Igneel would never abandon me!"

Feeling bad about bringing up topic that looked difficult for him to speak of, Carol was about to comfort Natsu before the sound of the front door to their house was loudly swung open catching all their attention.

"Kosei! You bastard! Where the hell is my daughter!"

Kosei frowned, scoffing as he recognized the voice of the intruder, "Dan. Idiot doesn't know when to take an answer for the truth it is."

Barging into the kitchen of the home was man with brown hair and a plain old brown shirt and white pants. His black eyes stared angrily at Kosei, his fists clenched furiously at his side as he leveled a glare at the doctor who wasn't fazed by the mans angry body language.

"Mr. Donald?" Ella said in surprise. She had never seen the nice old farmer so angry before in her life.

"Dan, what do you want now?" Kosei said calmly, "If it's a chill pill for your anger then I'm sorry, we're all out."

Kosei was suddenly forced to block a punch from the angry man with his palm as Dan began to shout in his face.

"Don't fuck with me, Kosei! I know it was you who took down the Dark Twins! The news has spread like wild fire in our town since early this morning! But what I want to know is why the only girl brought back form those bastards was your daughter!" he roared. Kosei continued to stare back at Dan calmly only pissing him of more. "Where the hell is my daughter! Those bastards took my precious little Blare away from me and I want her back! You got your daughter back from them, so why isn't my daughter back too? The whole town wants to know what happened to the rest of the kidnapped girls in our town so don't think you can ignore me!"

Kosei frowned at the man's words. It had been like this all day for him with random people from his town coming up to him begging for their daughters back. Since Carol came back from being abducted from the Dark Twins people had thought Kosei was one who had saved her. He had gone off looking for her when he noticed her sudden disappearance and found her leaving the forest close to their town with a pink haired little boy over her shoulders looking beaten up.

It wasn't until they had finally arrived back to the house that Carol told him and Ella about what happened while she had gone off to look for one of her friends that recently went missing. Carol knew her friend loved going off into the forest to look for flowers for her mother's flower shop so she had started their. Unfortunately she had bump into Zankoku while he was wandering around boredly. After that she was tied up to a tree while he waited for his brother to arrive so that they could seal her into some odd charms to sell as slaves.

The only reason she wasn't off to seas being sold to some filthy old men was because of the pink haired boy glaring daggers into Dan's head.

Seeing Natsu glare at Dan made Kosei grin as he pointed over the at pink haired kid for Dan to see, "I have no idea where that silly idea about me taking down Zankoku and Soko came from but I'm not the one who took them down. It was that little pink haired brat that saved my daughter from them. If you want answers then go ask him." he shrugged as Dan stared disbelievingly at Natsu, "I'm just some small town doctor. How would I know how to fight off some dark mages?" he grinned widely.

"You're fucking with me, right?" he deadpanned before shouting back into his face, "Do I look like I'm some idiot? Don't use a little kid as a scapegoat you shitty doctor!"

"Oi! I'm not a goat! I'm a Dragon Slayer!" Natsu shouted angrily before his cheeks began to puff up.

"Oh no." Carol said dully as she recognized what Natsu was about to do. This wasn't going to end well.

"And another thing, my last visit to your stupid little clinic cost me Fifty-five thousand Jewels! Just to fix a small headache you son of a-"

"_**Karyu no Hoko(Fire Dragon's Roar)**_!"

"It burns!" rolling on the ground to get rid of the flames eating away at his clothing Dan cried out in pain from the fire magic that shot at him from the little pink haired kid.

"Huh." Kosei calmly watched on as he looked over at the human torch rolling on the ground, "What do you know, the kid can breath fire. Who'd a thunk it?"

Natsu pouted as he looked away from his latest victim not caring if he roasted him alive. First he says that the weird doctor was the one who beat up the freaks then he call him a goat? No way in hell was he going to let that slid without some payback. He was a Dragon Slayer goddammit! Not some fluffy old goat.

Yup, Natsu has barely been in town for a day and already things were going crazy. It was probably a good thing Igneel kept his son up in the mountains.

The utter chaos that kid was capable of bringing was scary.

* * *

After putting off the fire on Dan, they all went to over to the living room of the house to talk about the Dark Twins incident.

Dan couldn't believe what he had just heard as he sat on one of the couches of the room holding his head as he tried to understand what he was told.

A little kid, not even ten years old yet, defeated the Dark Twins, who had been terrorizing their town for almost a month alone.

It was just hard to actually believe! How was that some snot nosed brat barely reaching his waist was able to beat two dark mages? It didn't make sense! Zankoku and Soko were strong enough to give S-rank mages a run for their money.

It was sad to say that normal people thought too highly of scum bags such as Zankoku and Soko. A little kid could beat them!

Which ironically enough happened.

Calming down from his blind anger, Dan hoped to at least get were the Dark Twins were tied up after Carol had told them that she had tied them up to a tree before leaving, only to frown sadly as he was told by Kosei that they were gone. Apparently a couple of the towns people had tried to find them after watching Carol and Kosei leave the forest. They had searched everywhere but in the end found nothing but a tree with a couple of ropes shredded at the base.

"Their gone." he grimaced trying not to choke on his tears which were on the verge of breaking the damn in his eyes, "My sweet Blare. I'll never see her beautiful face again." he sobbed into his hands.

They all looked down sadly at the sobbing man over his daughter being sold away like some item. Their was nothing they could they do. The Dark Twins were probably miles away by now, not wanting to get caught now that one of their victims escaped and warned the entire town about them.

That was until Carol suddenly remembered something Zankoku was talking about while he had her tied up.

"_After this we'll seal her in our **Kuku Miryo(Void Charms)**. Hopefully our new boss will let us sell the rest of our little toy's to the nearest black market." he cruelly laughed jangling the black little charms in shape of a purple box with black little chains wrapped around it._

'I knew their was a reason why I snatched those charms away from those bastards!' Carol snapped her fingers in realization catching the attention of those in the room. She ignored the stares as she went off into the house searching for something she had almost forgotten while shaking off the almost being molested by some disgusting perverts.

Running back into the living room, Carol brought out the dark charms Zankoku had shown her to her father, "Tou-san, do you know what these things are?" she asked quickly.

Kosei's eyes widened recognizing the charms his daughter was showing him. These were forbidden charms that were mostly in slave trade so that they could get their _'merchandise'_ shipped without too much haste.

"Where did you get these Carol?" Kosei asked in shock knowing that it was incredibly difficult to attain one of these charms without knowing where the Dark Market was.

Handing the charms over to her father Carol began to explain how she got the charms.

"While I was tying up Zankoku and Soko, I noticed their belts had these charms clipped onto them. I couldn't remember what they were since I was still shaky with being captured by them to be sold off but something told me that they were really important. So I took off their belts with the charms still on them and then finished off tying them together before leaving with Natsu's knocked out body." she frowned remembering what Zankoku had said to his brother while she was tied up, "Do. . . do they have the missing girls sealed inside them?" she asked hopefully.

Kosei shook his head making Carol's hope die away a little as he sighed, "Yes, the charms are actually mini pocket dimensions made to storage humans. And yes, we can unseal the girls from within the dark charms. But!" he cut off both Carol and Dan from shouting in joy, "It's easier said then done." he pushed up his glasses with his index finger as he explained, "The dark charm, _**Kuku Miryo(Void Charm)**_, is a rather complex sealing item to undue without the key seal. And unfortunately, I don't know any Sealing Magic to help break the seals engraved on the back the charm. See?" he gestured to the back of one of the black charms were several seal were circled around each other with a big one in the middle. "I'm just your average stay at home doctor. I know nothing about magic."

_'Average stay at home doctor my ass.'_ Dan thought with a sweat drop before looking sadly down at the belt of charms Kosei settled on the small table in the middle of the room.

For all he knew his daughter was waiting for him in one of those flat boxes. Cold and alone, wondering when her daddy was going to come to her rescue.

"Is their nothing we can do?" he growled holding back the urge to shout in anger in their house again.

Natsu looked on the scene in confusion, still too young to understand the deep meaning of what was going on. So some girls were trapped inside the weird squares. Why couldn't they just tear the things to pieces to free them? It couldn't of been that hard.

While Natsu was taught by one of the wisest beings to roam the earth it didn't mean he had some of Igneel's smarts rubbed off on him. His way to take things to excess yes, but he didn't get any of the smarts from the giant lizard.

Thinking to herself for a moment, Ella smiled as an idea began to form in her head.

"Kosei, dear, if someone knew how to read seals and know how to use Sealing Magic, would they be able to free the girls from the charms?" she asked her husband with a grin on her face.

The silver haired doctor nodded, wondering what his wife had come up with. If someone even knew how to read the seals on the charms, then that would help out greatly with freeing the captured girls.

"Yes, if they were even able to read seals, we could find a way to break the seals on the charms. Why?"

Ella's grin got wider as her thoughts were right before she answered her husband.

"You know how I volunteer at the orphanage weekend to help the children with their studies?" Kosei nodded before Ella continued, "Well there's this special little girl back at the orphanage who knows this special kind of magic she had learned from her parents before they had sadly passed away in the _**Kuro Yoake(Black Dawn)**_ incident. She's really smart too, so she might be able to help."

"_**Kuro Yoake(Black Dawn)**_?" Natsu frowned testing the new word in his mouth.

Carol nodded down at the small fire breathing mage, "_**Kuro Yoake(Black Dawn)**_ was a horrible event that ravaged our town, Chisana Ki, in pitch black flames for a whole day till it ended in dawn the next day. It was said that six mysterious strangers wearing odd black cloaks had entered the town before starting a magical fire that burned nearly half the town in only a day. While all that was going, the six strangers slaughtered anyone still in town with their magic who were foolish enough to try and stop them or put out the fire. It was a dark day in the history of out town, worst of all, no one knew what the bastards wanted out of nearly burning down the town." she frowned remembering the day as if it was yesterday. It was actually two years ago that the horrible tragedy had occurred and the town was still recovering from the damage it had suffered. Many lives had been lost causing the orphanage in their town to fill up as a lot of the poor childrens parents had died trying to protect them or leading them away from the danger.

She had lost a lot of good friends in the fire and it was still difficult to talk about in town. It was even worse for the kids who had lost their loved ones in the horrible tragedy.

Ella nodded with a sad smile on her face as she remembered the small girl she had meet in the orphanage, "She's such a sweet girl too. The type who could get along with almost anyone. It's just too bad she had lost her parents to those horrible people. She's really shy though and doesn't like to talk to people too much because of watching her parents die in front of her eyes. Poor girl, it's such a shame when a child has seen their own parents die."

"Yes, it is a shame." Kosei sighed knowing how sad it sounded but wanted his wife to get on with it. "Now you said this girl might know how to help break the seals, right?" he asked getting his wife to nod, "While I doubt a child could help us out in this sort of situation, the fire breathing little monster over their basically renders said doubt to ash after being told he had stopped Dark Twins." he gestured grandiosely at Natsu with deadpanned expression, "All hail the future pyromaniac. He will burn the world to ash." he said dully.

"Only if I'm bored." Natsu pouted.

"Theirs only one problem though." Ella smiled nervously, "She's really shy. If one of us just asks her to help free some girls from dark charms she might panic and be fell to pressured to help out. Unless," she trailed off as her eyes landed on the cute little Dragon Slayer. She grinned as a strange glint entered her eyes slightly scaring Natsu , "I might have an idea on how she might help us." she giggled only freaking Natsu out even more.

"Mommy?" Natsu squeaked before the brown haired women descended onto him.

* * *

"Sooooo, what do I have to do?" Natsu asked looking up at Ella with his hands behind his head as they walked the streets of Chisana Ki.

This was actually the first time Natsu had ever been in a town before. From the looks of it the town seemed to be small. The houses around the town where old fashioned with several stores and markets here and there spreaded out. Natsu even saw a what was called a 'food stands' few times while they were walking that made the young fire mage drool as he had never smelled such different types of food before. Small trees were also scattered around all around the town enough for Natsu see everywhere they walked with small bushes too. He grinned liking the feel of the town. It felt peaceful and calm and the people he had met were nice as some of them came up to talk to Ella and comment on how cute Natsu was. He blushed a couple of times as some of the women that talked to Ella bent down to pinch his cheeks.

Currently Natsu and Ella were walking to the orphanage to talk with the girl who could help them free the girls imprisoned within the _**Kuku Miryo(Void Charms)**_.

Natsu didn't why she had dragged him out of the house promising to come back with help when he had nothing to do with what was going on. He was suppose to be out looking for clues of where Igneel might be after he left the place. As nice as they all were, he had more important things to do then to stick around this small town.

Ella smiled brightly as they neared the orphanage, "Nothing really. All you have to do is be your friendly self and make friends with Levy-chan."

"Levy-chan? Who's that?"

"That's the name of the special girl I was talking about." Ella explained, "Levy McGarden, she's a really smart girl for someone her age. She's only nine years old yet she knows more about ancient history then the most intelligent teacher in out town. She's able to memorize almost everything she has ever read and she's cute to boot." she winked down suggestively at Natsu only to receive a flat stare. She sighed at the young boy's cluelessness.

"Does she know any magic?" Natsu asked confusingly.

"Yup. I remember her parents use to run a local library back before the _**Kuro Yoake(Black Dawn)**_. They specialized in cool type of magic I had never seen before called _**Kotai Moji(Solid Script)**_. You should see it, it looks amazing." she smiled hoping she had caught Natsu's interest only to sweat drop seeing him start to grin as he cracked his knuckles. She caught his attention alright, only it was the wrong type attention she had hoped for.

"I wonder is she can fight?" he said excitedly hoping for the prospect of a fun fight.

"Sorry to burst your bubble Natsu." Ella giggled, "But Levy-chan doesn't like fighting. She's too much of a kind spirit to be fighting even if it's just for fun."

"That sucks." Natsu pouted feeling disappointed that he couldn't fight the girl.

Ella sighed at the boy's love for fighting. She had barely known Natsu for a full day and already she knew enough to guess what kind of person he was. He was carefree like all children should be and had a cheery attitude from what she could guess. She could only guess what kind of father raised him.

"Now don't be like that Natsu." Ella lightly scolded the Dragon Slayer, "Just cause you can't fight her doesn't mean you two can't be friends."

Friends? Who said he was here to make any friends?

Finally arriving at the orphanage, Natsu starred up at the the tall building with awe. When thought about a place for kids who had no parents to care for them he thought that the place would look depressing. Instead, Natsu was treated to the sight of a tall golden yellow building with white trimmings around the windows and door. Bright flowers decorated around the windows and the wide open lawn in front of the building where Natsu could see kids playing around happily.

"Nice place, huh?" Ella smiled as Natsu nodded before they made their way into the orphanage.

Walking into the building, Ella asked Natsu to stay put as she went to ask around some of her co-workers where Levy might be.

Natsu eventually got bored of standing around doing nothing as he went off to wander around the orphanage for something to do. Ella wasn't his mother so why should he listen to what she said? He was Natsu Dragneel, son of Igneel the almighty fire dragon! He was his own man!

The inside of the building looked like it was made out of wood as Natsu looked around. Countless of rooms for studying, playing, and sleeping were situated around the place were he saw more kids playing in. The orphanage didn't look as depressing as he thought it would be. The orphaned kids actually looked happy to be around each other.

_'How can they be happy when their Tou-sans and Kaa-sans are dead?'_ Natsu frowned in confusion. Shouldn't they of been sad that they didn't have a place to return to? So why were they laughing and having fun if they were all alone?

Natsu didn't understand it. If Igneel ever died he wasn't sure he would ever be able to be happy ever again. Igneel was the one who raised him when he was just a baby. He had taught him about the world of magic, how to read, even though he still couldn't read well, and how to talk and write. He still couldn't write well either but that didn't matter. Igneel had always told him not to stress over what he couldn't do and that eventually he would get it right.

That's why it was so important that he hurried this sealing mess up. So Natsu could go out into the town and search for any clues about a dragon from the towns people. Walking around as he ignored the kids happily playing around him, Natsu felt different from the rest of the orphans.

He wasn't like them. He still had someone to go back to. Igneel didn't abandon him all alone. He was still out there somewhere, waiting for Natsu to come and find him.

"Are you okay?" a quite girl voice asked him as Natsu suddenly jumped in surprise.

"What?" he said startled as he turned around to stare accusingly at who surprised him.

Standing behind the young Dragon Slayer was a little girl with short wavy blue hair parted enough to show her forehead and hazel eyes. She wore a small sleeveless yellow dress with orange-red lining and brown skirt with sandals. She looked shyly down noticing Natsu stare at her with annoyance not meaning to of caused trouble to the odd pink haired kid.

"N-Nothing!" she stuttered before shyly looking up at Natsu's face, "I was just wondering if you were new to the orphanage. And that's why you were crying because you miss your family." she said sadly.

"Crying?" Natsu suddenly frowned, "I'm not crying. Why would I be-" he suddenly stopped as he felt some warm liquid slid down his cheek from his left eye. Was he crying? Why the hell would he be crying?

Quickly wiping away the tears Natsu huffed as he looked away from the small blue haired girl, "No, I'm not crying. And why would you think I'm an orphan? I don't look like one." he mumbled poutedly.

The little girl blushed in embarrassment feeling bad that she thought him as and orphan as she apologized, "I'm sorry! It's just you look like you've been living in the woods with how your dressed. Like your a jungle boy or something from the books I read." she said with a bit of amusement in her voice.

Natsu frowned before looking down at his clothes in confusion wondering what made her think he lived in the woods. He was still wearing the brownish black tattered pants tied to his waist with some rope from Igneel. That was basically it. He didn't wear a shirt or anything like that. He really didn't see the point in wearing a shirt since he lived up alone with Igneel in the mountains, not the woods.

"What's wrong with what I'm wearing?" Natsu scratched his head in confusion looking at the blue haired girl he realized he didn't get a name out of. "This is what I wear everyday and Tou-san doesn't seem to think that it looks bad. Besides, I'm not an orphan, shrimp."

The little girl pouted at the name, "My names not shrimp, its Levy." she smiled.

_'Levy?'_ why did that name sound familiar? It was important for some reason, Natsu just couldn't think or why.

Yup, Natsu Dragneel, son of the almighty Igneel had forgotten why he had come here with the nice yet scary lady. If Igneel knew about this he would shake his head in embarrassment at his sons forgetfulness.

"Levy, huh?" Natsu pondered for a moment before getting tired of thinking and introducing himself, "Nice to met ya Levy, I'm Natsu Dragneel." he grinned.

"Natsu Dragneel? That's a weird name." she giggled.

"Whatever." he huffed before once again feeling bored. The boy had an attention span of a brick. Five hundred Jewels he probably already forgot why he was here.

Noticing Natsu start to feel bored, Levy shyly drew circles with her foot as she looked up at the taller boy, "Do. . . do you want to go play something?" she said shyly.

Natsu perked up as he looked down at Levy, "Do you know how to use magic?" he said excitedly.

"A little bit." she happily nodded, "Do you wanna see?"

* * *

Ella was a little bit annoyed that Natsu had gone off to wonder the orphanage by himself when she came back for the Dragon Slayer once finding out where Levy was. She knew she had no authority with the pink haired boy but he could of at least politely listened to her. She sighed as she decided to go looking for Natsu once she found Levy. It probably wasn't too hard to find a fire breathing kid in an orphanage where barely any kids knew magic.

"_**Kotai Moji: Hikari(Solid Script: Light)**_!"

"Levy-chan?" Ella said in confusion recognizing the familiar voice.

Turning over to next corner of the halls Ella peered into one of the rooms to see a familiar blue haired girl and pink haired boy playing in the room.

Natsu stared in wonder at the words shining in bright white light floating in the air courtesy of Levy's magic spell. The words 'light' were spelled in an english bubbly text and shined light an actual light. Natsu was amazed at the cool magic since this was his first time seeing a different kind of magic besides his own, not counting the magic he saw in his fight with Zankoku.

Levy giggle at the look of awe on Natsu's face before swiping her hands at the magical words, canceling the spell as it faded away.

"That was awesome!" Natsu shouted in awe with stars in his eyes causing Levy to blush. "What else can you do? Can you make fire?" he said hopefully.

"I guess." Levy shrugged having never really tried to summon fire with her magic, "What about you? Can you use magic?"

"Yup! Watch!" he nodded proudly before raising his left hand up. Flames roared to life in a small flare of fire magic in his hand like a torch that he showed to Levy, "See? I know how to use Fire Dragon Slayer magic. Isn't it cool?"

But before Levy could answer Natsu, Ella ran into the room to capture the small blue haired girl in her arms in a big hug. Natsu jumped back at seeing the brown haired lady suddenly come out of nowhere to hug Levy before taking a small step back hoping he wasn't next. He had enough hugs for one day.

"Oh, Levy, I'm so happy to see you again!" Ella happily cried as she hugged the small blue haired mage tighter, "I was looking for you everywhere but no one seemed to know where you went off to."

"I'm fine Ella-san." Levy mumbled in the older womens hug feeling suffocated.

Putting down Levy, Ella turned her eyes to Natsu who looked away from her small scowl directed towards him. "Natsu, why didn't you wait for me back at the entrance to the orphanage like I told you to do?"

"Because I got bored." he smiled nervously.

Ella just sighed at the pink haired boy's impatience before smiling down at Levy, "Anyways, it's good to see you Levy-chan. I was actually looking around for you so that I could introduce you to my new little friend, Natsu. But it looks like you two already got to met each other from the looks of it." she said happily.

Natsu grinned at Levy who smiled making Ella want to squeal at how cute they looked together. Let it be known that the woman had a thing for cute things.

"So why did you want to see me, Ella-san?" Levy finally asked, "It can't be just so you can introduce me to Natsu."

"Right you are, Levy-chan." Ella nodded, "Only a smart girl like yourself would of guessed something like that." she said sagely making the two sweat drop.

"I actually need your help with something really important that only a genius like yourself can help us with."

"You need my help?" Levy said in disbelief, "Why? I'm just an orphan."

"That's not true, Levy." Ella scowled, "You and the other children in this orphanage are more then just orphans. You're all little bundles of sunshine just waiting to shine like the stars at night!" again, Natsu and Levy sweat dropped at the perky womens words. "Besides, your smart for your age. Even some of the teachers in town think you can make them run for their money. Not to mention you're one of the few people in town who can even use magic. That's a special gift you shouldn't underestimate."

"I guess." she shrugged looking down.

Ella sighed at Levy's shy behavior. When it came to magic the girl didn't feel as confident as she should of. She was practically a genius who knew more then the average full grown man, Kosei said so himself after testing her intelligence one day when Levy's parents came by for a check up. She was only five at the time yet she knew how read and speak properly for someone her age. And her vocabulary was astounding.

It was just too sad that her parents had died and left her all alone. It was most likely the trauma of seeing her parents die protecting her from the flames that had caused Levy to become shy. She wasn't horribly shy enough to stutter whenever someone talked to her, but she didn't really communicate much with kids her age. She seemed fine with making friends with her books instead.

Not too mention she knew such an amazing kind of magic. If she wanted too, Levy could become a mage and join one of the big guilds in Fiore. She didn't have to stay in the orphanage when she could go out for a life of adventure like some of the books she read. A lot of the kids envied her for being able to use magic when they couldn't and had sometimes caused them to isolate her form them because of their jealousy. Levy didn't seem to mind because she had her books, but it pained Ella to see a child all alone.

Ella suddenly remembered a wise old saying from a powerful old mage once said.

_'Their are some people in this world who enjoy being alone, but their isn't a single person who can bear solitude.'_

Actually, looking down at Levy who was being told to cheer up by Natsu shocked Ella. This was probably the first time she had ever seen the script mage out of her shell in a long time.

"Come on Levy, I'm sure you can help us with whatever we're trying to do with your awesome magic! Don't count yourself out yet!" Natsu whined trying to encourage the lightly blushing bluenette.

"Well, I guess I can see what I can do." she said with a small smile on her face.

"Great!" Ella clapped her hands together, happy that they could convince Levy to help, "Now all we need to do is go back home and we can straighten everything out-"

_**BOOOOOOOOMMM!**_

In a violent earth shaking quake, Natsu, Levy, and Ella, along with everyone else inside the building fell to their knees as a loud commotion outside shook the entire orphanage.

"What the hell was that!" Natsu exclaimed as he picked himself back up. Debris began to fall from the ceiling as the building began to shake again. Screams of panic filled the halls as it felt as if the whole place was beginning to come apart from whatever was shaking the place, furniture and other heavy objects starting to move about from the shaking, hitting a couple of kids before some of the workers in the orphanage began to evacuate the children from the building.

Ella quickly picked herself back up as she grabbed onto Levy's hand was shaken from the sudden shaking of the building. She had to get them out of here quick. Whatever was causing the building to violently shake probably wasn't finished with it's work. It felt too different then a natural cause to be something like an earthquake. Especially with the fact Ella could of sworn she heard a loud shout of anger outside the orphanage as more quakes rocked the building.

"Natsu!" hearing Ella call out to him, Natsu turned his head over to the housewife as she urged him over to her as part if the ceiling's foundation began to crumble over him, "Let's go! We got to get out of here before the place collapse, now!" she shouted strictly.

Not wanting to stick around as everything fell apart, Natsu listened to Ella as he ran over to her before they made their way out of the rocking building.

Running out of the building as fast they could, they were lucky enough to escape the once beautiful building as the entrance inside collapsed in on itself. Unluckily enough for the others inside, their only way of escape from the orphanage was blocked by heavy debris and rubble sealing them all inside.

"What the hell is going on?" Natsu said, his voice becoming shaky seeing a few of the people trapped within the soon to collapse building try to escape through the small gaps in the blocking rubble. Bloody hands poked out of the rubble fighting to escape from certain death as their shout of fear and pleas rang in inside the young Dragon Slayer's ear.

"Help us! Please, someone help us!"

"I don't wanna die! Mommy!"

"Someone, please save the children!"

"Daddy, Mommy, help me!"

"It hurts! I can't fell my left arm! Mommy, mommy, I want my mommy!"

_'Stop it.'_ Natsu thought shakily as their cries for help kept ringing inside his ears. Never had he heard such fear before in his life. The pure anguish that had settled over the once happy orphanage struck deep in Natsu's heart. Even as he saw a group of strangely dressed men in white and light blue cloaks with a weird symbol like cross in the middle try and help the trapped workers and orphans, the screams and shouts didn't stop. _'Please, STOP IT!' _he closed his eyes in pain not wanting to hear the shouts anymore.

Loud shouts of charging men suddenly caught Natsu's attention as he looked over the side of the building from his spot on the ruined lawn. His eyes widened in shock at the sight that greeted his eyes as saw what the weird knight like men in robes were charging at.

A monster of a bald man standing at ten feet tall with massive muscles that bulged with discolored veins stood punching at the side of the orphanage with his bare hands. He wore a torn tight black shirt with shredded purple pants that resemble more like shorts now. His skin was a light tan with his veins bulging all over every muscle in his body, the color of the veins constantly changing from red, to blue, to yellow, to green, and then to black. Two spiked braces were around his both of his wrists that looked like they weighed a ton.

But what caught Natsu's attention was the sick grin on the man's face as he kept pummeling into the home for orphaned and abandoned kids, his grin going wider with every shout of fear coming out to the building. His face was cruel and his eyes were dark red that glowed with magic.

One look at the monster of a man and Natsu finally understood why his father Igneel had separated him from the outside world.

Not all humans were kind.

Watching as the robed knights were easily tossed aside like trash from one wave to the man's bulging arm, Natsu felt his fear begin to be replaced with something he had never felt before.

Pure anger.

"Dammit!" one of the Ruin Knights gasped in pain as fell along the lawn near Natsu, Levy, and Ella. Blood leaked down from his mouth as his body was scratched up from the toss, his robes and armor cut up from the powerful swing that did more then toss him. "He's a _**Kyuzu(Surge)**_ mage! How the hell does a bastard like him get his hands on such an illegal type of magic?" he shouted in pain.

"That's Hugo Stonefist!" one his buddy's grunted next to him as more Ruin Knights were tossed like rag dolls everywhere. "The Stonefist family were the first to of come up with the magic Kyuzu(Surge), even after their family has been erased from the face of the earth because of the horrible consequences it deals there was bound to be a few still out there."

"AHAHAHAHAHA! What's wrong, trash?" Hugo roared with laughter before seeing a Ruin Knight get close enough while he was enjoying himself. He grinned widely in sadistic pleasure before quicker then the eye could see, buried his large fist deep into the poor knight's stomach. A sick crack of broken bones echoed out from the punch as the light in the knight's eyes faded away. Hugo smiled cruelly at the dead man hanging off his fist before grabbing him by his neck and snapping it.

The Kyuzu mage scoffed at the knight before nonchalantly tossing him over his shoulders without a care and going back to smashing his fist into the orphanage.

"Come on kiddies! What happened to your screams of horror and fear? Go on ahead and call for your parents! You'll all be meeting them pretty soon anyways!" he laughed.

Ella shut Levy's eyes from the monster as she watched on helplessly as Hugo wrecked the orphanage with workers and children still in it. But even covering Levy's eyes didn't stop the girl from crying in fear of the monsters sick sadistic laughs roaring all over the town. _'What a monster.'_ she sobbed trying to tear her eyes away from the horrible scene. How could someone be so heartless that they would try and destroy a home for orphans with the orphan still in it? It shocked and disgusted her how the man could take pleasure in other peoples suffering. Especially an orphans suffering! How twisted did you have to be to enjoy such sick pleasure?

The children Ella had dedicated her life to care and love for in their parents place were crying out for help and their was nothing she could do. Even some of her good friends who had also dedicated their lives to care for the orphaned and abandoned were doomed to die by a crazy mans rampage.

It was _**Kuro Yoake(Black Dawn)**_ all over again.

"Stop it."

Eyes widened in surprise and shock as everyone turned to look over at the shaking spiky pink haired boy looking over Hugo with his eyes shadowed by his hair. Ella cursed herself for forgetting about Natsu as all eyes were on him. Even Hugo stopped to look over at the pink haired boy with an amused grin.

"I'm sorry." he said innocently before punching a giant hole in the building's wall that shook it even more, getting loud cries of pain and horror from all those inside. "What did you say? I couldn't hear you over the sweet sound of music playing inside my ears." Hugo grinned insanely.

"I said stop it." he clenched his fists angrily as his voice refused to stop shaking.

"N-Natsu, p-please st-stop it!" Levy sobbed in Ella's arms as the brunette hugged her while sobbing.

"You might want to listen to that little bitch, punk." Hugo teased Natsu as he leaned against the building, shaking it with his weight. "Not that it will save you. I'm going to a fun time killing everyone here, but it might give you more time to think about why you are all dying." a look of insanity entered Hugo's eyes as he grinned widely enough to tear his cheeks apart. "For I am just doing the lords work. I'm just being a good little follower and cleansing this town or it's dark and sinful history. Everyone of you sinners in this town is tainted by sin and need to repent for your evil ways!" getting off the orphanage, Hugo began to rain blow after blow to the weak structure, his grin never leaving his face as he chanted, "Repent! Repent! Repent! Repent oh sinful children of dead devils! Welcome the lord into his hands and repent for your sins!" he laughed.

_'This isn't the lords work!'_ Ella sobbed loudly falling onto her knees while still embracing Levy as everyone around the orphanage were left to cry in anguish as only a few more hits to the building would kill all the children and workers inside. The Ruin Knights were left scattered around either dead, unconscious, or too beaten up to try and stop the insane monster, their tears mixing in with the towns people as nothing could stop Hugo. _'This isn't god's work! It's the devils!'_

Hugo grinned noticing the last of the iron inside the orphanage holding it up give out. Just one more hit and he'd be sending these poor mislead children into his lords loving and caring arms.

Pulling his fist back as it glowed with bright white light, Hugo was unprepared for the strong, scorching hot fist to his cheek to send him falling on his butt. The ground under them shook with his impact on the ground which cracked as he held his slightly burned cheek. The burn stung but Hugo ignored it for staring at the enraged pink haired boy flying over his head with an flaming axle kick.

The ground under Hugo erupted with dust and crumbled earth as Natsu's axle kick met with his skull, blowing up a crater under them with the powerful spell that Hugo was sure left a mark.

"_**KARYU NO KAGITSUME(Fire Dragon's Talon)**_!" Natsu roared before falling on the massive man's chest. He looked down with his eyes shadowed once again by his hair, not making a move to leave the man's chest.

_'Natsu?'_ Ella was left to stare in pure shock just like everyone else at the pink haired boy's actions. Everyone was deafly quite watching on as Hugo stared back at Natsu with a look of fury.

Natsu continued to say nothing till he couldn't hold it in any longer.

"I. . . I don't know anybody in this town. And I honestly don't want to stay here any longer. I just want to find my Tou-san. That's all I want." he softly before his body began to slowly waver with fire magic all around him. "But I can't just stand by while some bastard starts to kill innocent people!" he finally roared in pure anger. His anger filled eyes stared back at Hugo who was startled by the small boy's outburst not to mention strength. It was like looking through scorching mad coals of fire.

"These kids are happy here! Even though their Tou-sans and Kaa-sans are dead, their still happy! I don't know any of them and I'm not friends with any of them either, but I can still tell that they just want to move on!" angry tears spilled down from Natsu's eyes that he didn't bother to wipe away.

Natsu was just a kid. He didn't understand the world yet. He believed it to be caring and loving, especially since he had a father who cared for him with all his heart. From his small space in the mountains cut off from the world he didn't understand why it couldn't be like his home with Igneel. Full of love and fun with no worries.

But now, Natsu was starting to see that outside his little home, was no fairy tale.

People died. People killed. And people were cruel. They were monsters.

But they were also caring. Loving. Warmhearted. Fun. And friendly. They were loved. And they knew how to love.

A malestorm of fire magic spiraled all over Natsu as he was consumed by the flames that could break through dragon scales and reap their souls. The pure anger flowing through him causing his flames to burn hotter as Hugo gritted his teeth from the painful burns Natsu was leaving on his chest just by standing on him.

_'This kids a monster!'_ Hugo grinned madly watching the flames surround the pink haired kid without burning him alive. _'This is going to get a lot more interesting!'_

"I'm going to burn you from existence." Natsu glared furiously just as an aura of dragon made out of flames surrounded him. "You say their all sinners, but the true sin is watching by as a monster like you kills innocent people! That's why I'll fight!" he roared loudly, shocking everyone at how it sounded like an ancient mystical beast that was said to rule over the earth long ago.

But they were wrong. It sounded nothing like a dragon.

It was the roar of a Dragon Slayer.

And he was pissed.

* * *

_**Spell List**_

_**Kotai Moji: Hikari(Solid Script: Light): Solid Script magic:**_ By waving the right palm in a complex motion, the mage generates the word 'Light' a few meters away from them that shines with a bright white light. The spell is useful when trying to light the way in a dark place and an excellent reading light when generated into small words like a light bulb or even blinding an enemy with the bright light.

* * *

**With the orphanage's destruction being halted by one brave pink haired Dragon Slayer what will happen next? What kind of magic is Kyuzu(Surge)? And how will our favorite Dragon Slayer stop the insane man of god? **

**I don't know how he's going to do it, but it's going to be fun imagining it!**

**Well people, the chapter is over and the next one to both of my stories will be up next saturday of sunday. **

**Weird. It's like waiting for a new episode of Fairy Tail to come out. I really wish I had my own computer. Then I'd be able to upload more chapters quicker then once a week.**

**As for the OC promblem, I think I'll just use my own characters I had created from some of my original stories. I got plenty. But it doesn't mean you should stop sending me ideas for characters and magic. Keep sending them. I'm sure a lot of you got some pretty cool ideas.**

**Oh! And are you surprised at who I had brought in to the story? I've always loved Levy and having her in the story will change more then you think. Their are secrets to her family history you will find out in time.**

**Because their is not much known about her history, she's perfect for my story. Now I can weave her own story and give her a lot more character. Just like a few other of people I have in mind who will meet Natsu in his journey.**

**Remember, if you got any questions, don't be afraid to ask. I promise to answer them as best as I can without ruining what's going to happen next in the story. And keep sending them ideas! **

**Read and Review.**

**NeoShadows fading out.**


	3. A Tail of Bigger Dragons

**What's up? NeoShadows here with a new chapter of A Time Before Fairy Tails.**

**I know, I know, I should of updated The Story of a Dragon, A Knight, and a Fairy Hunter. I'm just busy with trying to set the arc up and finishing creating the OC's in the story. Every story needs careful planning before heading into. I'm almost done, so the next chapter should be up soon.**

**For now, enjoy the new chapter. After this, you'll start asking questions on certain things that has happened in the chapter.**

* * *

**Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to Fairy Tail. It belongs to Hiro Mashima.**

* * *

**Chapter 3: A Tail of Bigger Dragons.**

* * *

Half a mile away from the Chisana Ki orphanage destruction, two small plumes of shadowy wisps shot down from the sky onto one of the many roof buildings in the small town.

Slowly, the pillar of shadows concealing the two mages in the black-blue magic faded away into thin air. The two people stepping out of the black magic wore a black full length body coat reaching to the bottom of their ankles and black hoods over both their heads. The taller of the two had two black horns poking out of his hood shaped like lighting bolts while his partner had silver looking fox ears poking out their hood. They wore dark purple pants under the coats with black boots that were pointed at the end of the boot like fairy shoes. Their faces were concealed by black porcelain masks that covered their whole faces.

"Volpe." hopping down from the brick roof, the taller hooded man landed on the railing of the porch connected to the upper building. The man yawned tiredly before sitting down on the railing just before a sudden flare of flames caught his attention. He laid his hands at his side as he watched in interest seeing the flames monetarily take the form a dragon before they died away and large plume of dust blew up.

"Set your _**Sukyankoa(Scan Core)**_ on the two mages fighting near the plaza of Chisana Ki and tell me their stats."

"Hai, Alastor-sama." nodded Volpe obediently.

Watching as his one of his second in command began to use her magic to scale their magic power and potential Alastor turned back to where he had seen the flare of fire magic with a grin behind his mask.

_'Let's see what your made of, kid.'_

* * *

Jumping back from a straight punch for his body Natsu hissed feeling the air pressure from the missed fist brush by his body like like tiny needles. Another fist aimed at his head this time nearly hit him before he ducked under Hugo's hit. Natsu then slammed his fist covered in fire at the enormous man's out stretched arm before he could retract it. Hugo growled feeling a slight burn on where the shrimp punched him before bringing back his arm and raising them both up for a hammer slam.

Hugo slammed down both his hands down before the small pink haired boy, kicking up a cloud of dust as his hit cracked the ground like mini earthquake. Hugo's red eyes darted down looking for Natsu in the cloud of dust, frowning from not noticing his hammer fist meet any soft, bony resistance.

"Where are you, dragon boy?" Hugo mumbled before feeling a slight rise of heat from his behind.

Flying out of the cloud of dust surrounding them Natsu lashed out with another flaming kick to the giant man's back. Hugo didn't even bother to turn around to block Natsu's kick as he slammed back his right elbow like a piston at Natsu.

Blood and spit flew out of Natsu's mouth as he was sent flying towards a planted tree. Not giving Natsu a chance to stand back up Hugo concentrated his magic energy into his left hand before punching the air in front of him at Natsu.

"_**Zen'no Ken(Almighty Fist)**_!" he shouted before an invisible ripple of air pressure created from the punch was sent aiming at the downed Dragon Slayer.

Feeling his enhanced senses warn to move away Natsu quickly gathered some fire on the palms of his hand. Gathering enough fire Natsu shot out of the way of the deadly spell using his hands as jets. Unfortunately Hugo seemed to blur right next to Natsu as the tree he crashed in blew up into splinters. He glowed with white bolts, grinning madly with glee before shoulder rushing into his side ruthlessly. "_**Kyuzu: Kyodia no Tosshin(Surge: Giant's Rush)**_!"

_'What the hell?'_ the powerful rushing spell sent Natsu launching into a food stand, wrecking the small stand into pieces. Everything seemed to be colored white for a moment before everything returned to normal as Natsu gasped clutching his side in pain. For a moment, it felt like his entire body was shaken up from inside. Like Hugo had rattled his bones with one hit.

Red stained Natsu's precious white checkered scarf from his own blood causing him to weakly growl in anger. He tied to scarf tighter to his neck as he sent a furious glare straight at Hugo who cracked his neck with a scary grin.

"Your going to pay for that." Natsu grunted picking himself up from the broken pieces of the food stand. Small scratches ran around his body from the crash that he ignored even though he would feel the annoying sting from the wounds. But besides that, he was fine with the exception of the bruising forming on his side.

"Why do you fight me, child?" Hugo asked while still cracking his neck. "From what I can tell you don't seem to live around here. You have no reason to share the same sin as these sinners wallow in. If anything, you should be helping me with those special flames of to purge these filthy trash off the face of the earth and into Kami's ever loving hands." seeing the small boy only glare at him more Hugo sighed. Such ignorance. Ignorance of which deserved to be punished by Kami's all mighty power.

Clapping his hands together Hugo was bathed by his magics light before slowly parting his hands away from each other. A thin beam of light stretched from his palms until Hugo couldn't part his hands any more. The beam flashed in a blinding light until an odd hammer appeared in his hands.

It was a three foot double silver headed hammer shaped like a thick cross with golden trimming on it's sides. It's grip handle was golden with a black cross hanging by a short chain connected by it's lower hilt. "_**Kanso, Omoi Hanketsu(Requip, Heavy Judgment)**_." he smirked cruelly laying his massive hammer over his shoulder.

Hugo raised the cross hammer up high above his head as if he was about to slam it down at Natsu. Expecting to be hit, Natsu launched himself out of the way to avoid the hammer only to stop. Hugo slammed the hilt of his hammer in front of him burying it in the ground like it was quicksand till it stopped at the the end of the grip.

"_**Hakai no Zencho(Aura of Destruction)**_!"

The cross glowed with a thin aura of golden light before the next thing Natsu saw was a wide ring of magic slamming into him. Sent flying up in the air, Natsu was unprepared for Hugo to suddenly blur up on top of his air born body and clasp both his hands together. Natsu was soon sent rocketing back to the ground from the Kyuzu mage's hammer fist. The force of the blow nearly caused Natsu to black out from the pain as his body kicked up a crater from the blow.

Weakly standing back up Natsu didn't even have a chance to blink before the glowing cross still buried in the ground unleashed another destructive ring of magic that slammed into him. Natsu quickly crossed his arms over his body as the ring hit him, trying to fight back against the spell. No matter how how hard Natsu tried the spell pushed him back little by little until he couldn't stand the force any longer. The ring struck as Natsu's arms gave out, sending him flying away again.

"_**Kyuzu: Seirei Kiretsu(Surge: Spirit Crack)**_!" Natsu's eye's widened feeling a large presence over him before Hugo's large palms slammed over his tiny chest. He screamed in pain as Hugo pinned him down on the ground, cracking it from the white light that felt like an a heavy force. Everything once again was colored white from the pain coursing through Natsu's body.

Hugo grinned enjoying the screams coming from Natsu. It was like music to his ears. Raising his other fist up above the screaming pink haired boy Hugo ruthlessly dropped the heavy fist.

Natsu coughed up blood from the falling blow, the world returning back to it's original colors in his eyes. It hurt. Everything hurt. Never had Natsu felt such pain before. Not even Igneel's training left him so battered.

Too weak to fight against Hugo as he picked him off the ground by his neck Natsu was left to weakly stare into the man's mad red eyes. They were filled with ruthless glee at the beat up form in it's grip.

"So weak." Hugo laughed. Natsu glared angrily at the large man despite the large amount of pain he felt. The action caused Hugo to tighten the grip around Natsu's neck leaving him to slightly choke from the lack of air entering his lungs. "Impudent little child!" Hugo madly shouted nearly splitting his face from the wide grin on his face, "Did you honestly believe someone as weak as you could stop me? A man of Kami! Don't be such a fool!" slamming Natsu's face to the ground Hugo let go of his grip over his neck.

Trying to stand back up Natsu's face was slammed back down by Hugo's foot digging into the back of his head. His body was then rocked by a rain of heavy blows from Hugo's booted foot. Each blow digging the Dragon Slayer's body into the ground.

"It's too bad that those sinners aren't here to watch what their sins will bring them!" he said mockingly, his laughter drowning out the weak pained groans leaving Natsu's small body, "Running away to leave an innocent child to die? And you say their not sinners! Blasphemy! Those fools left the moment they had a chance to save themselves! Only a true sinner would use a child as a distraction. What trash!"

Lifting up his boot one more time, Hugo dug his foot deep in Natsu's head. The stomp would of cracked open a normal man's head open but Natsu was able to survive the pain.

Natsu could barely utter a word from the pain his body was feeling. Every blow felt like a hammer was dropping onto him. It was wonder his body didn't break from the stomps. No normal man would have been capable of such power. He panted raising himself back up. Even as his legs shook in agony, Natsu stood straight back up leveling a glare at Hugo with one of his eyes shut.

"Such will." he grinned, shaking his head at the sight before him. Any normal person would of dropped dead by now from his first attack. That fact that a child no older then ten was still standing from countless blows to the body was astounding. It was sad that he had to break such rare potential.

Hugo lifted up his arms in the requiping six more identical crosses in shining white light. They hung over the air above Natsu before dropping down and sinking to the top of the hilt. Natsu was then surrounded by a circle of crosses that each glowed the same golden yellow light as the original.

"_**Hakai no Zencho(Aura of Destruction)**_!"

Natsu screamed in agony as the crosses let loose a ring of magic that crushed into his body like a heavy gravity. From the center of all the crosses, Natsu was able to feel each burst of magic crushing him. His head dropped once the rings faded away only to once again come back with a vengeance. It seemed that the rings would resonate every few seconds and die away for another before resonating again. Each wave of rings brought Natsu closer and closer to losing it.

"That's it!" Hugo laughed with insanity as Natsu screams became louder, "Let it all out! Scream! Maybe then Kami will give you mercy and let all this suffering come to an end! Scream your little heart out, child! Beg me to end the suffering!"

Slowly Natsu's will died away. His eyes starting to see spots until he couldn't take it any longer.

As his head dropped, Natsu starred numbly down at the ground with only one thought playing through his mind.

_'Igneel, where are you?'_

* * *

"What do you mean you won't let me through?" Ella shouted in anger at the Ruin Knight standing before her.

After Natsu had caught Hugo's full attention, the Ruin Knights had used the situation as a distraction to gather all the injured and civilians and lead them away from the wrecked orphanage. The ones still trapped in the heavily damaged building were left behind for now until the battle ended. They could only save the ones that they were capable of saving.

Ella balled up her fists in fury staring at the Ruin Knight in front of her blocking her way to where Natsu was fighting. Levy was clutching onto her dress with a death grip as she tried to hold back the sobs escaping her. She was furious that they would use a child as a distraction to save themselves.

As soon as they were a safe distance away from the battle, the Ruin Knights set up a magical barrier around them a half a mile wide to protect them all from the Hugo if he came back for them. Ruins spread out in dome that hung over them that glowed a light purple. Ella punched the barrier over them only to have her fist bounce back like it hit a spring. No matter how hard she hit, the barrier would negate it.

Looking back at the Councils men, Ella could only stare at them with anger and disgust at how they remained neutral to what was going on. How could they be so relaxed when their was a child fighting a monster all alone?

"Let me out. Now." she demanded, her teeth grinding against each other trying to hold back her temper.

The knights shook their head stoicly, their expressions blank as they guarded the the corners of the bubble that protected them all. "I'm sorry. We can't do that." one the knights said with no emotion.

"So your just going to let a child die?" she said scornfully, laughing mockingly without any humor in her tone, "What brave men you all are."

One of the Ruin Knights twitched, his emotionless facade cracking as he stared at the brown haired women with barely controlled anger in his eyes.

"What kind of man let's a child do all the fighting while they cower in fear? Don't any of you have any souls!"

"Shut the hell up lady!" one of them roared, causing Ella to step back in shock but still glare at them, "You think we want to just stand around and do nothing? We don't, but our superior told us that the remaining team sent to stop Hugo Stonefist has to guard the survivors! We can't send out any of our men since there is only ten of us left!" he said angrily, a tear dropping from one of his eyes as he remembered some of the people he had worked with had died moments ago, "Don't think your all the only ones suffering! A lot of the knights that had died by Hugo were my friends! And we have yet to receive any news that any civilians had died yet. As it is right now, were the only ones losing the ones we care about!" he cried.

Ella felt a pang of guilt come over her at the man's words but stood her ground. If they did nothing, it was only a matter of time before they had their first report of a death that was not their own come back to them. And many more to come.

Unknown by the arguing Ella and Ruin Knights, the small blue haired girl clutching onto the brunette woman's clothes was no where to be seen. A small ripple in the bubble was the only indication of where the girl might of ran off to.

* * *

A gridded ball of emerald green light floated in between Volpe's palms as two fifteen inch screens were displayed in front of Alastor. They showed nothing but static till they clicked and a picture of a grinning Natsu and sadistic laughing Hugo were displayed on each screen. Various ruins ran along each screen with what looked like statistics written along with each mages magic power.

Alastor hummed in thought reading the ruins before looking back at the short girl, "Are these scans correct?" he said with confusion.

Volpe nodded as she summon a pair of the screens for her to read. "Hai, Alastor-sama. Even from far away, I can still scan them of their magic. My _**Sukyankoa(Scan Core)**_ is never wrong."

Alastor sighed, returning to stare at the two screens in front of him, more specifically, Natsu's screen.

"As much potential the boy has, he's no match for someone as high up the food chains as Hugo." he frowned behind his mask, "Delusional bastard he may be, but the guy has a hell of a magic power behind him. To think he has _**Kyuzu(Surge)**_ in his possession. That's just plain old cheating!" he pouted.

"_**Kyuzu(Surge)**_, a magic enhancement type that sends volts of power through the veins to the point it enlarges the bodies muscle to that of a giant. It also raises the magical output in the mage's possession to that of the weakest _**Seiten Daimado(Ten Wizard Saint)**__._" Volpe said stoicly.

"Yup." Alastor yawned before looking back at where Natsu and Hugo were fighting, "Poor little bastard. He's going to have to step things up a notch if he hopes to win." he said with amusement before frowning, "I hate watching fights from far away!" he shouted childishly while waving his arms around like a brat, "Volpe, give me a thirty inch tall, fifteen inch wide screen with the fight displayed on! I'm tired of using magic to see the fight from far away."

"Right away, Alastor-sama." not a moment later, a big green screen appeared in front of her leader to watch the fight. They both watched as Natsu was cornered in a circle of odd looking crosses that sent a waving burst of golden rings crushing into him every few seconds. Hugo stood before the pink haired boy with a sadistic grin on his face as he watched Natsu stand numbly as the rings kept him up.

Volpe frowned at the sight, it was clear who was winning so why didn't Hugo just end it? Looking down at her leader she wondered why he was even cheering on the defeated boy.

"Alastor-sama." she called getting him to look back at her questioningly, "Why are you even watching this? It's clear who's going to win. My scan of the pink haired Dragon Slayer read that while his magical power is higher then the average childs, he is still dwarfed by the magic energy Hugo is displaying. It's only a matter of time before he get's bored with playing with the small mage and ends it."

"Wellllllll, you are right." he smiled, laughing with amusement as he turned back to the magical screen, "But you never know. The kid might surprise your expectations. While I'm sure he won't be able to defeat Hugo at the level he's at now, I'm sure he's going to survive this whole mess. This boy is entertaining. Only time will tell how much he can become an asset to my cause."

Volpe didn't understand, but took her leaders words for it. While she herself didn't believe the boy would be able to make it out of their alive, Alastor had never been wrong before.

Turning back to the fight, Volpe was suddenly alarmed by the sudden spike in magical power heading over to Natsu's and Hugo's position. Another screen popped up beside her showing a map of the area with two red dots showing Natsu and Hugo's position. A slow blue dot was moving north of the two's position, it's magical power nearly that of Hugo's.

"Alastor-sama, we have an-"

"I know." he shrugged cutting off Volpe as he looked north, playfully kicking his legs like a child over the railing, "Like I said, I'm sure Natsu won't be able to beat Hugo at the level he's at now. He's unknowingly buying time till _**he**_ comes in to finish the muscle head off."

"_**He**_?"

"Uh-huh! It's about time for the _**Maddo Ishi(The Mad Doctor)**_ to check in!"

* * *

Natsu's body twitched in pain as he tried to fight off the black spots eating away at his vision. He still couldn't think of a way to break himself free of the powerful spell of rings trapping him still. He tried summoning some flames to blow back the spell but lost his concentration as another wave hit him.

He could barely think with Hugo's spell hitting him every second. How was he suppose to find a way to break himself free when the crosses went off like landmines with a wave of magic slamming into him every few seconds? As another wave hit him, Natsu was suddenly struck with an idea. Hoping Hugo wouldn't notice, Natsu began to gather a small flicker of flames in his hands.

"I'm bored." Hugo yawned as he sat cross legged in front of his crosses. He had been hoping to listen to more screams of anguish only to be disappointed when Natsu began to try to fight back. The annoying pink child had one hell of an unbreakable will. Even while suffering, he still fought against him.

The Kyuzu mage would have been impressed if it didn't annoy him so much. Why couldn't he just die like the rest of the fools he fought? He was a child for Kami's sake! Yet here he was, still standing and breathing.

Hugo looked back at the heavily damaged orphanage still surprisingly standing behind him. Even the screams of horror and fear had stopped from inside the building. He wouldn't be too surprised if they somehow found a way out of the falling apart building. He growled feeling his purpose to cleans this town of it's dark and sinful history meet some unwanted resistance. All because of one child.

"I think I've had enough." Hugo sighed, standing back up with a grin on his face, "As fun as this is, my lord is still waiting on me to deliver these sinful souls into his loving arms. Not to mention I still have to deal with the rest of the souls in this town." a light halo rose above Hugo's right fist that kicked up a whirlwind of gust around him from the power radiating off of it. His grin widened as he pointed the spell straight at Natsu's face, "Do you feel the lords almighty light? Does it blind you with it's innocence radiance? Or does it scorch your sinful, filthy body?" he whispered darkly. The crosses let loose one final wave of rings that didn't fade away, instead joining together to keep Natsu still.

Natsu weakly grinned up at Hugo not afraid of the deadly spell pointed at his face, "W-What the hell a-are you b-blabbing on about?" he said panting, "Kami this, Kami that, Kami shut the fuck up! I don't really get all this religious stuff, but I know you shouldn't use Kami as an excuse to kill people! I could care less about all this Kami stuff since I'm going to shut the annoying trap of yours up!"

"Oh?" Hugo rose a brow quizzically before sneering, "And how are you going to that?"

_'With this!'_ Natsu thought about to break himself free before his thoughts were interrupted by a familiar shout.

"Natsu!"

_'Levy?'_ Natsu thought in shock as he looked over behind Hugo to see a familiar blue haired girl run over to him. His eyes widened seeing her run over to where he was despite Hugo blocking him from her. Why the hell was she here? She was suppose to of left with Ella and the others somewhere else!

"Another foolish child?" Hugo scoffed before pointing the halo towards the running Levy, "I don't have time to deal with you, little girl. Perish, _**Kurai Shutsugen(Dark Advent)**_!" he shouted firing off the spell to the stunned Levy.

"Levy!" Natsu shouted in alarm as the halo flew off towards her.

"_**Kotai Moji: Gado(Solid Script: Guard)**_!"

. . . . Wait, what just happened?

Levy stared at the glowing white halo meeting her spell which was a barrier written as 'Guard' in disbelief. Hugo's spell fought to overpower the barrier only to blow up a moment later not being able to pierce through the defense.

"I-It worked?" Levy stuttered in pure disbelief.

"It worked!" Natsu shouted happily.

"It worked?" Hugo roared in anger.

That was one of his strongest spells he had come with! And some random little girl was able to block it? What kind of bullshit was this?

Looking into the surprised hazel eyes of the little girl, Hugo nearly choked on his own saliva seeing something familiar about her magic. Wanting to test something out he shot off a couple more _**Kurai Shutsugen(Dark Advents)**_ at Levy's barrier only to have them explode on impact. _'Kotai Moji(Solid Script)'_ he thought in furry. The last user of that annoying magic was suppose to be dead! How was one still alive?

Hugo snarled openly at Levy causing her to step back in fear of the menacing man before her as he slowly walked up to her. The ground shook with his every step as his muscles seemed to in to increase in mass, growing to the point he resembled something of a monster she would see in her nightmares. His veins flashed into different hues of colors making his appearance more frightening then before.

He stood over the the small blue haired girl, easily towering over her small frame before smashing the annoying word _'Guard'_ into pieces. Levy trembled as her only thing protecting her from the scary man was shattered.

"Where the hell do you think your going?" Natsu shouted, struggling to free himself from Hugo's spell.

"I don't have time to deal with you, trash." he said briefly looking back at Natsu before turning back to the trembling Levy, "This is more important then killing some annoying little fly. I'm about to rid this town of it's root of all sin."

_'Forget this!'_ Natsu thought in anger before two large flames flared in both of his palms. Flames on the right. Flames on the left. Struggling to bring his hands together Natsu was prepared for the big boom that was sure to come.

Hugo raised his hand up above Levy ready to smash his heavy fist down upon her as she fell on her back. He grinned in sadistic glee before a loud explosion tore apart the back of his shirt. _'What the hell?'_ Hugo gasped in pain as his hands dropped from the sudden burst of fire hitting his back. Smoke from the powerful spell bellowed from the hole in on his shirt as his skin was burnt in a dark shade that surprised Hugo.

Kyuzu was a powerful spell that increased his muscle and magic energy mass ten fold to the point that spells couldn't even hurt him anymore. So how was it possible that a fireball was able to scorch his skin?

Hugo moved his head back snarling in anger that his magic was unable to protect him from some childs little embers to look at a tiredly smirking Natsu, panting from the overload of magic he used to break free from Hugo's trap. The six holy crosses laid in smoking rubble from the powerful flame exploding from the pink haired mage, their once brilliant white design now black with flickering flames.

"*Pant* How. . . do you like that?" Natsu said smugly, trying his best to keep himself up. His body was heavily bruised from the onslaught of aura rings coming off the crosses and blood trickled down his head with some staining his white scaled scarf.

"You. . . little shit!" Hugo roared finally losing his cool. No matter how many times he hit the child with his spells and fist, he still stood back up! It was infuriating!

Another white halo of magic gathered on Hugo's fist that he swung at Natsu, letting the spell fly off in almost a blur.

"_**Kurai Shutsugen(Dark Advent)**_!"

"Not happening!" Natsu yelled, swiping away the deadly spell towards an empty store. The store blew up in a shower of white magic tearing it apart, raining small splinters all around them in it's wake. "Never again." he trembled, his hair shadowing his expression from the shocked Kyuzu mage. A bit of smoke flowed from Natsu's right fist and surprisingly, a second degree burn marked his knuckles. "Never again will I let your attacks hit." he growled with conviction in his tone.

_'What the hells going on?'_ Hugo gnashed his teeth in anger at the sight. First the little girl and now him! His attacks couldn't even kill two little brats! All this power at his disposal and he couldn't even kitll them? How pathetic!

How could all his years of training under the lord leave him powerless? His magic was destruction, it brought ruin to everything that got in his lords way, it could level cities with enough training! So how cold two little sinners survive his best spells?

Hugo shook away the annoying thoughts as he brought his attention back to the smirking pink haired boy. Now wasn't the time to be doubting himself. He would be doubting the power his lord blessed onto him. And that was a sin.

"Don't get too cocky, boy!" Hugo grinned, albeit shakingly. "I still have the little girl!" he laughed before raising his fist back to Levy. He turned back hoping to find the girl trembling in fear of him only to shout in furry at the sight in front of him.

"Where the hell did she go?" he roared.

Natsu's nose suddenly twitched as a familiar scent hit his senses, the smell of some type of flowers and what he guessed was paper causing him to widely grin.

"Levy!" he shouted in joy as the small blue haired girl popped out of nowhere besides him, clutching onto his battered pants, trying to hold back the tears threatening to spill out of her eyes. "How did you get away from that muscle head." he asked in confusion.

"I used a spell called _**Kotai Moji:Kakusu(Solid Script:Hide)**_." she said with a shaky voice. "As soon as he turned away, I used the opportunity to slip past him to get to you."

"Good job!" Natsu gave Levy a thumbs up, "I would of never thought of that. I would of just kicked him in the grapes the moment he turned away from me. But your way works too."

Levy sweat dropped at Natsu's comment. How would of he kicked him from that high? They barely reached up to Hugo's waist.

"ENOUGH!" Natsu's eyes widened in alert as his senses warned him of the flying food cart coming their way. He quickly grabbed Levy by her waist as he jumped to the side to avoid the crashing vehicle, blowing up into pieces a moment later. Natsu let go of Levy as he turned back to where the cart came flying from only to step back at the what he saw.

Bolts of white magic shot off from Hugo's enormous body, his muscle mass if possible, growing bulkier, his shirt completely torn to shreds from his increase in size. The heavy looking spiked braces around his wrists fell off, cracking the ground into two craters from their weight. His teeth grew to the point they poked out of his mouth, glinting like deadly razors in the sun with his canines growing into sabertooths. His veins stopped flashing and settled into a neon green color that could clearly be seen glowing through his skin. His eyes glew a dark red as he sneered down at both Natsu and Levy with like an animal would it's prey.

Hugo longer was a man of Kami. He resemble nothing more then a demon.

"_**Saji Genkai(Surge Limit)**_." he murmured, laughing in glee as his magical power surrounded him in a whirlwind of white magic. The area around them shook like a tremor as he laughed, his very presence shaking the earth around him.

"The chains that Kami had cursed me with are now gone!" he shouted, blowing back a gust of wind that ruffled Natsu's and Levy's hair. His voice was deeper then before, sounding nothing more then a monster as spoke down to Natsu, "Now there is nothing you could do to damage my blessed body! No longer will you be able to block my spells with those puny hands of yours tainted by sins!"

Natsu swallowed back the unknown feeling crawling up his spine as he stared back at Hugo with sweat dripping down his face.

This was seriously getting out of hand. Why was he even fighting this nut job? This wasn't his town and this wasn't his home. He had nothing to lose. If he died, Natsu would never be able to see Igneel ever again.

So why was he fighting?

"I'm scared."

"What?" Natsu blinked before feeling his hand tightly grasped by the little girl next to him. Looking down at the hand, Natsu was surprised he almost forgot about Levy hiding behind him from the towering monster of man looking down at them. She was shaking in fear of the man, her eyes trembling with tears as she tried look away from Hugo.

Natsu was honestly surprised that Levy didn't just use her magic to hide from Hugo and run away somewhere safe. She didn't have to stay by his side. She could just hide and leave him by himself.

So why was she still here?

"Who should I kill first?" Hugo hummed in thought as he licked his sharp teeth, "The annoying pink haired boy who is stalling his almightys demands or the cursed Kotai Moji girl who's magic has been a thorn on my bloodlines side till the day they were wiped out." he tapped his head in thought before grinning as he made up his mind, "I know." he laughed before pointing at Levy, "I think I'll start with you!"

Natsu's eyes widened as he saw Hugo bring back his fist to punch the air front of him to send an air pressured blast of magic at straight towards them.

_'Dammit!'_ Natsu cursed before puffing his cheeks to counter Hugo's attack. A line of powerful flames met with Hugo's attack before it was reduced to flickering flames stopping it. As the flames died away Natsu was unprepared for a rippling shock wave to come flying at them in blinding speeds. It was coming too fast for him to counter with another spell so Natsu was left with no choice but to push Levy away from him and take it head on.

Smoke blew up from the shock wave hitting it's mark as Levy was left to stare at where Natsu was hidden by the explosion. "Natsu! Are you okay?" she shouted in worry as the smoke parted to reveal him horribly scratched up and gasping in pain.

Instead of answering Levy, Natsu shouted at the girl, "Why the hell are you still here? Get out of here!" he angrily yelled, blood dripping off his head, staining his white scarf with splotches of red.

"B-But-" Levy stammered only to be shouted at by Natsu.

"NO BUTS!" he roared, coughing up a bit of blood a moment later, "Just get out of here! Leave me to fight Hugo by myself. I can handle him!"

"No you can't!" she cried, tears trailing down her cheeks, "Look at you! You look like you can barely stand!"

"This is getting boring." Hugo sighed before charging another white halo around his fist, "If you two are going to fight in front me then do it somewhere else. I don't have time to deal with nuisances."

he pointed the halo straight at Levy with his fingertips, "_**Kurai Shutsugen(Dark Advent)**_."

Natsu quickly shot off with jets flaring from his palms to get in the way of the spell before it could hit Levy. He raised his arms over himself to protect himself from the halo, hiding Levy behind him just as it blew up in his face.

_'It's the same move with this guy.'_ Natsu thought tiredly, frowning as he noticed he could barely lift up his left arm. He panted feeling his vision begin to darken again, the white ring nearly blowing him to smithereens if it wasn't for his dragon like body.

Hugo snickered seeing Natsu take the blow of his spell, "What happened to that 'never again letting your attacks hit' speech? Such insolence."

"Shut up! _**Karyu no Koen(Fire Dragon's Brilliant Flame)**_!" struggling to clap both his hands together, Natsu gathered a powerful explosion around himself before lifting it up above himself into a giant fireball. He then sent it flying at Hugo hoping it would have the same affect as it did when he freed himself from his crosses.

It didn't. The fireball impacted against his chest and was reduced to showering embers, not even leaving a scratch on him. Hugo laughed at Natsu's poor attempt to hurt him. At the level he was at now, he wouldn't be able to put a scratch on him.

"Levy. . ." Natsu whispered, his hair shadowed by his hair as he finally began to feel the last of his magic begin start to dwindle. That was literally his strongest spell he could perform. The others Igneel taught him couldn't be used due to the fact he still hadn't gotten them perfected yet. Any other spell he tried to use against Hugo would only leave him wide open for attack. And he didn't think he could take another one of his punches again. Not this time. "Please, get out of here. I'll try to stall him as long as possible so that you can escape and get help." he said seriously. If he couldn't beat him, then he could atleast keep his attention on him while Levy escaped. Natsu was not going to let someone die when he could save them.

"No." Natsu's eyes widened in shock as he looked back at Levy with confusion, her eyes just as serious as his. "I'm not going to leave a friend by himself to die protecting me. I don't want anyone doing that for me. Not again." she sniffed.

_'Friend?' _thefire Dragon Slayer thought in complete shock. He barely knew her. They had only just met and she was already calling him her friend? How could she say something like that with a serious face?

'_Friend, huh?'_ oddly enough, Natsu couldn't fight the sad smile on his lips as thought about it. He never really had friend before besides Igneel. He was his father and that's all he ever needed. As long as he was with Igneel, Natsu didn't need anybody else. And now that he was gone, Natsu felt lonely without him watching over him. He was alone now, barely two days since his foster father left to who knows where and he had no one.

Now Natsu had someone calling him her friend and he found the lonely feeling in his heart lighten if only a little. It felt. . . nice. Why, he didn't know but he didn't feel like fighting the feeling.

Flames began to whirl around Natsu as he felt himself not giving in to the hopeless situation. Looked like he found his reason to keep fighting besides staying alive to met Igneel. No matter how tired and beat up he was, he wasn't going to stand down. He wasn't going to lose.

Levy stepped back from Natsu as she noticed the flames around him begin to engulf him in a mini storm of bright orange-red fire, his body lightly steaming from his wounds being sealed by the strong fire. How was he able to summon such power when he should be dead on his feet?

The simple reason why Natsu could keep going even while beaten to an almost pulp was because he had found the number one reason that would keep him going in the future to fight.

Natsu had a friend to protect.

"_**Karyu no Kagitsume(Fire Dragon's Talon)**_!" flames projected Natsu high up in the air like jets as he flew over Hugo. He then spun over to a more power behind his attack before dropping the heel of his burning foot on Hugo's skull. The blow actually caused Hugo to flinch, surprised that he felt the blow land. His hand moved up to swat the annoying child away only to miss as Natsu jumped back to deliver a right hook to his face. Natsu's punch barely budged him, his eyes sneering at him before he tried to grab him.

Natsu smirked once again jumping back from his attempt to get a hold of him. Looked like his major power boost had sacrificed a lot of his speed.

Hugo snarled as he tried to swat away the annoying fire mage as he kept hitting him with his fists. While his punches weren't hurting him they were annoying. The Kyuzu mage's hands lite up with white magic that he swung at Natsu with. The swing blew up a strong gust of wind from the force that only managed to blow back dust and slightly graze the air borne Natsu. Hugo growled before violently clapping his hands together, the force of the clap creating a strong burst of wind that stunned Natsu.

"Die!" Hugo shouted slapping Natsu while he was stunned into a house where crashed through. Two halos were summoned on his hands that sent slicing through the air like shurikens. Before they could hit their mark two whipping arcs of fire slammed into the halos, blowing them up upon contact.

Natsu then flew out of the house crossing both his arms over his head before sending a crossing wave of fire at the giant man, "_**Karyu no Kosa Tsubasa(Fire Dragon's Crossing Wings)**_!"

Hugo's massive arms were too slow to block the fire as they burned into his skin, leaving slight burn on his chest the shape of a smoking 'x'. Four more halos were swung at Natsu in retaliation that were again blown up with another wave of fire. He growled in anger before stomping his fist on the ground, shaking everything around them like a mini tremor, stunning Natsu once again. He punched the air in front of him to send an air pressured burst straight at the Dragon Slayer while he had the chance. It hit sending Natsu skidding on his feet as he enough time bring his arms up to block. Natsu then launched himself forward with flames engulfing his fists to send a barrage of flaming punches towards Hugo.

More and more of Hugo's annoying _**Kurai Shutsugen(Dark Advent)**_ were sent at Natsu that he dodged by jumping over them and side stepping. Craters were blown up around the plaza from the missed halos, showering Natsu in dust and crumbs of rock, he continued running by the deadly rings even as few of them grazed his skin. Ducking under a big one, Natsu dropped to stand on his hands, pointing his legs at Hugo before a torrent of hot fire shot out of his feet. The pink haired mage was too close for Hugo to dodge the spell as he was flooded with dragon flames. Even with his _**Saji Genkai(Surge Limit)**_ up he still felt the scolding feeling of his flesh burning.

"_**Karyu no Tekken(Fire Dragon's Iron Fist)**_!" a flaming hard uppercut up Hugo's chin slightly stumbled the Kyuzu mage back that was soon followed up with a spinning back kick to his knee, the blow causing him to drop on one knee.

"Little brat." Hugo winced feeling his knee buckle. He looked down to find Natsu puffing up his cheeks with flames leaking out his mouth before his vision was flooded with fire. "_**Karyu no Hoko(Fire Dragon's Roar)**_!"

Pain. For the first time since fighting the little mage, Hugo was treated to feeling the full force of pain that came along with the dragons flames. That fact that Natsu had breathed a point blank stream of fire at his face and that his flames weren't normal old flames meant that his magic couldn't protect him from the scolding burns on his face.

Hugo roared in pain feeling a blind rage overcome him from the flames. He blew back the fire ravaging his face with a wave of his arm blowing them away before catching Natsu off guard and back handing him away from his sight.

"Natsu!" Levy shouted seeing him fly off towards some dangerous looking broken rubble. Her index finger glowed a bright white as she swiped her hand in an odd complex pattern before a fluffy word floated above her finger, "_**Kotai Moji: Kumo(Solid Script: Cloud)**_!"

The word 'cloud' written in fluffy white font that she sent at Natsu. The word passed by the air borne Dragon Slayer before skidding to stop and moving in front of the sharp rubble to catch Natsu. He slammed into the fluffy cloud with a 'oof', smiling feeling the soft material catch him.

"Thanks, Levy." Natsu sighed enjoying the soft fluffiness of the spell.

Turning back to Hugo, Natsu gulped seeing the man dig his fingers in the ground and tear out a giant chunk of earth out. Okay, he knew the guy was strong but this was seriously insane.

"Take this, you little shit!" he roared before chucking it at Natsu.

Natsu sweated knowing he wasn't going to be able to dodge the flying chunk of earth. He closed his eyes preparing himself for the impact only to open them back up as he heard a familiar voice.

"_**Ten no Mojiretsu(Heaven's Strings)**_." the voice said dully before three glowing green strings pierced through the chunk of earth. The strings were pulled backed surprisingly pulling the heavy piece of earth with it. The owner of the strings swung them like a whip away from Natsu to send them slamming the rock away somewhere far.

Natsu's nose twitched as smoke began to cloud the ground all around them in a floor of ash, the smell reminding him of only one person that he had met.

"Shitty doctor?" Natsu whispered as a large cloud of black smoke parted to reveal a smoking silver haired man with cracked glasses and a stitched black and white shirt.

Kosei scoffed at the name, inhaling a puff of smoke from his cigarette before blowing it out and addressing the pink haired Dragon Slayer, "It's Kosei, brat. Why does everyone disrespect the one that heals them?" he shook his head as he made his way to Levy, the little blue haired staring at the smoking man warily as he approached, "You know I can poison your medicine if I wanted to. Keep that in mind once were finished dealing with ugly here and I'm forced to heal you by my loving wife. For someone who's not a mage she has an iron hard fist."

"Kosei-san?" Levy said slowly, the silver haired doctor stopping next to her to look down at her.

He smiled with lidded eyes, ruffling her short wavy blue haired as he blew a ring of smoke from his cigarette, "Nice to see you, Levy-chan. I think it's been almost two years since I last saw you. How you doing?" he grinned lazily.

"Fine. . ." she answered, not knowing what to say.

Kosei nodded before green strings shot off his fingertips and uprooted a slab of earth just as fist sized shock wave shot at him. "_**Zen'no Ken(Almighty Fist)**_!"

"Really? Well that's good to know." he softly chuckled, his eyes not leaving Levy even as Hugo's spell exploded against the rocky slab, "You don't look like you'll need any medical attention, so that leaves that annoying little pink haired snot chilling on a fluffy cloud." he sighed.

"Who you calling an annoying snot, old man!" Natsu shouted with a tick mark on his head.

"QUIET!" Hugo roared in raging furry causing Natsu and Kosei to look over at him with frowns. He gnashed his overgrown teeth glaring at the silver haired man smoking without any worry. "Who in Kami's name are you?" he said menacingly.

Kosei blinked, pointing at himself, "Who? Me?" he asked tilting his head in confusion.

"Yes, you!"

Kosei grinned despite the lazy, bored look on his face, "Me, I'm just your average stay at home doctor. Here to take back the wounded and ripping you off with my fair prices."

The Kyuzu mage felt a vein was about pop from all the anger he was feeling. First a little boy, then a little girl, and now a doctor? What next? Was a baby going to stop his fist with it's bare hands?

"Don't play with me, fool! Only a powerful mage would be able to block my spells so easily!"

"I'm not a mage. I'm just a doctor." he said carelessly before pointing behind the giant mage, "Now that there, is a mage." he smirked.

"What?" Hugo frowned before he was slammed behind the head with a powerful punch.

"_**Karyu no Tekken(Fire Dragon's Iron Fist)**_!"

As Natsu sent Hugo falling face first to the ground, he jumped over him to land next to Kosei, sweating as he caught his breath.

"You look like shit." Kosei said bluntly, looking over Natsu's weary state. He was definitely going to have to heal the pink haired boy's wounds right after this. It was surprising that he wasn't unconscious yet.

"No pain, no gain." Natsu grinned, frowning a moment later as he watched Hugo slowly get back up. "Dammit! What does it take to keep him down!" he scratched his head in frustration.

"A _**Kyuzu(Surge)**_ mage, huh?" Kosei watched on in interest, his eyes looking over the giant man with fascination, "And I thought the last of them were wiped out."

"You thought wrong." Hugo said bitterly, cracking his neck were Natsu punched him, "If anything, I might be the last of my kind left on Kami's beautiful earth. All because of a couple of smart mouthed mages discovering our secrets."

_'Smart mouthed mages, huh?'_ Kosei thought, briefly looking down at Levy from the corner of his eye, "I guess it was for good reason, your magic did have a tendency to drive their caster insane and mad with power. If anything, _**Kyuzu(Surge)**_ is like a powerful drug that stimulates the muscles. The fact that it raises the magic reserves of the user is probably the only reason it was ever classified as a spell. Other then that, it was a horrible magic that drove it's every caster insane."

A dark chuckle left Hugo's lips as his dark red eyes looked at Kosei with insanity, "That's not true. I mean look at me." he gestured to himself, "I'm not insane. I'm a man of Kami trying to cleanse this town of it's dark, sinful history. What's so crazy about that." he smiled.

"Everything." Kosei answered plainly, shaking his head, "It's no wonder the Council had ordered you kind to disappear. It's too bad some of the ones with _**Kyuzu(Surge)**_ that had it under control and were naturally good people had to die because of people like you." he said stoicly.

"And how would you know?" Hugo frowned, "Nobody besides a select few now of what happened to the Kyuzu mages. How would a mage like you know?"

"Again, I'm not a mage. I'm a doctor. Say it with me now, doc-tor. Get it right." he dead panned, "As for how I know, let's just say that's none of your business."

Hugo looked closely at Kosei almost feeling a sense of deja vu before he tsked unleashed his magical aura to tear apart the ground under him.

"It does not matter. You'll be dead soon as it is." he grinned madly.

"Really now." the doctor drawled, smoking a long puff of ash, "Sorry, but I can't let you do that. My family expects me back home in time for dinner with both of these little brats. It's spaghetti night, and my wife wants me home by seven." he said smirking, not intimidated at all by the powerful aura tearing apart everything around Hugo.

Kosei drawled one last puff of smoke from his cigarette before tapping the end of the stick to let some ash drop down, "_**Haiiro Furea(Gray Flare)**_."

A large plume of smoke blew up to hide away all three mages before it dispersed into gray wisps in the wind.

_'Where did they go?'_ Hugo thought in slight panic as his eyes darted all around to find the annoying mages.

"_**Kazanbai Kumo(Ash Cloud**_)."

Blurring over Hugo, Kosei put two of his fingertips to the side of his lips to blow a large cloud of black smoke to Hugo's head. He then snapped his fingers to summon a small flickering flame to the top of fingertip that he pointed at Hugo like a gun, "_**Hakka(Ignite)**_."

Hugo was stumbled into a coughing fit as the smoke entered his lungs, burning his lungs and cutting off the oxygen entering them. He tried to blow back the deadly cloud only to rocked by a sudden explosion from the black cloud, the smoke mixing in with red hot fire to create a plume of scolding hot ash. The flames burned his skin just like the pink haired boy's did, the pain just as strong as when he roared a stream of fire in his face.

Blowing back the fire and smoke with a burst of his magic, Hugo tried to back hand the silver haired doctor only for him to duck the swing and coil his glowing strings around his arm. Kosei grinned mischievously as a moment later his strings were coated with tendrils of ashy smoke and he pointed a flickering flame at the strings, "_**Hakka(Ignite)**_."

"AAAAGGGHHHH!" Hugo shouted in agony as Kosei only tightened the strings to the point they began to cut into his skin while burning the wound.

If he wasn't in enough agony, another annoyance decided to make itself known by slamming their flaming foot on his shoulder.

"_**Karyu no Kagitsume(Fire Dragon's Talon)**_!" Natsu shouted before slamming his other foot on his head. The blow sent Hugo tumbling along as he tried to keep his balance steady only to have Kosei use his _**Ten no Mojiretsu(Heaven's Strings)**_ as whips to cut at his muscles with his left hand and keep his right hand holding down his arm with flame coated strings. Using another magical burst to distant the two mages attacking him and cutting off the connection of the strings Hugo aimed a straight punch at Kosei while using his other hand to send a white halo at the still flying Natsu. Kosei quickly brought up both his arms to block the punch as it sent him skidding on his feet to smack into a yellow colored shack. Natsu meanwhile chose to use his own magic to stop the spell coming at him, meeting the halo with his own _**Karyu no Tekken(Fire Dragon's Iron Fist)**_.

Landing on his feet from the boom that blew him back when he punched Hugo's spell with flaming fist, Natsu grimaced as he felt his left arm pang with an odd numbness crawling up it.

"Sprained arm, huh?" Natsu nearly choked on his breath as he noticed he had landed next to Kosei, the silver haired man looking down at his heavily bruised and burned arm with interest. He looked up at the doctor curiously, not knowing what a sprained arm was causing Kosei to sigh noticing his look of confusion.

"A sprain is the tearing or stretching ligaments, usually caused by a hard blow to the area or any other injury such as a high fall. The area becomes discolored int a black and blue bruise and it becomes painful to move, even a slight weight on the area can cause a grown man to cry in pain." poking at the damaged limb, he rose a brow noticing Natsu bite back a shout of pain at the action, "And from the looks of it, you have a severe sprain. I'm actually surprised your still fighting with it." he smirked.

"That doesn't matter now." Natsu growled, feeling annoyed at Kosei poking at his arm. Looking back at Hugo who finally got his balance back, Natsu brought his whole attention back at the problem at hand, "Right now we still got to pound this monster into the ground. You can annoy me later about my wounds later."

Kosei kept up his smirk as three skulls of gray smoke lined up against his forearm, their mouths opened agape with more deadly, toxic ash coming out in wisps, "I could careless about your wounds. It's going to be my wife that's going to be nagging me to check on your condition." he sighed, "You should of stayed back with Levy-chan. Ella's going to nag me for letting you fight in your condition."

Raising up his arm lined by smoky skulls, Kosei flung his arm at Hugo, sending the skulls cackling with smoke trailing behind them, "_**Hai no Tokotsu(Ash Skulls)**_."

Natsu gather some fire in his lungs to send three small fireballs shooting after Kosei's spell, the fireballs consuming the skulls in dragon flames and causing them to turn into skulls of pure fire.

But before they could blow up in Hugo's face, the giant sliced them in half by three of his own projectiles, his halo's having been thrown like disks. Kosei's and Natsu's attack blew up in a cloud of fire before they were forced to jump to the side to avoid Hugo's _**Zen'no Ken(Almighty Fist)**_.

Ducking another barrage of halo's, Kosei got in close to Hugo jump up and flip to deliver a hard axle kick to his chest. Hugo laughed as Kosei frowned noticing his attack fail to hurt the Kyuzu mage before shrugging and flipping two of the many scalpels hooked to his belt into his hands. He dropped down to the ground and crossed his arms over to slash at one the giant's legs, the small medical blades cutting into the muscle but other wise not causing Hugo to flinch. He sighed before one of his scalpels was coated by a green light.

Hugo was covered in nothing but muscle at this point. He'd be lucky to hit one of his organs with a sword. Looked like Kosei was going to have to use a bit more magic to cut him down.

"_**Mesu Kura:Rain(Dark Scalpel: Line)**_." Kosei said cooly before slicing the air in front of him. Not a second later, blood gushed out of the the wound deeply cutting up from Hugo's waist line to the top of his chest in a bloody line.

"You. . . son of a bitch!" Hugo gasped before Natsu came out of nowhere to slam his fist into his cheek.

"_**Karyu no Tekken(Fire Dragon's Iron Fist)**_!" he shouted before flipping back to land behind his back. His body was then coated from head to toe with fire before he shot off his feet to ram Hugo's spine with a devastating headbutt, "And _**Karyu no Kenkaku(Fire Dragon's Sword Horn)**_!"

Stumbling forward from the blow, Hugo tried to steady himself before turning over to Kosei and slamming his open palm covered in bolts of while magic at the silver haired doctor. "_**Kyuzu: Seirei Kiretsu(Surge: Spirit Crack)**_!"

Kosei quickly moved back from the attack as it cracked the spot he was standing on and erupted in a shower of earth. But by moving away from the attack, Kosei was left wide open for a retaliation hit from the Kyuzu mage. Hugo grinned sadisticly as he punched the doctor straight in the gut, sending him flying off in the process.

"No one can stand the power of Kami." he said smugly before raising his hand to block a kick from Natsu.

Natsu glared at the giant blocking his kick, wincing a moment later as his left arm hurt from moving. The Dragon Slayer jumped back to swipe a wave of fire up at Hugo's face that Hugo tilted his head to the side to avoid. A tremor tripped Natsu on his feet from the giant stomping on the ground that Hugo used to hit him with a spell.

"_**Hikari no To(Tower of Light)**_!" he laughed in glee snapping his fingers at Natsu before a blinding white light erupted under Natsu's feet like a fountain.

Natsu held back a scream as he waited for the eruption of light to fade away. It felt like blistering lightning was stunning his system. Finally, the light died away but Natsu found himself unable to move as his body felt numb from the spell.

_'Dame!'_ Natsu cursed as he watched Hugo slowly raise his fist up to punch his lights out.

"Say hello to Kami for me!" Hugo cruelly laughed before sending his fist towards Natsu.

"Don't think so." Hugo's eyes nearly popped out of his skull as his fist was held back by Kosei's neon green strings coiling around his arm like snakes. Walking out of the building he had crashed though, Kosei had his arm held back over his shoulders to stop Hugo's fist from meeting Natsu's beat up body, blood trailing down his jaw from the blow to his gut. Using his other hand to summon a glowing string from each fingertip Kosei wrapped up the big man's neck with his spell before pulling back on the strings and slamming him face first to the ground. The ground shook violently from his fall that shook Natsu up a bit but ignored as he flew up high in the with his flames projecting him.

_'I got only a few more spells left before I'm completely empty.'_ getting a good distance in the air for what he was planning, Natsu inhaled the fire of Kosei's own explosions still lingering around into his mouth. The flames spiraled up into his open mouth before he had enough and gulped them all down. His body then flared up with more fire as he gathered as much fire as he could into his lungs. Gathering enough, Natsu's belly blew up like a balloon till let go of the flames keeping him afloat and dropping down straight at Hugo. He spun his body while he fell till he blurred into a pink blur as he unleashed the stored flames in his lungs.

"_**Karyu no Hoko(Fire Dragon's Roar)**_!"

Kosei hurriedly jumped back from the spiraling vortex of fire coming down onto Hugo as he slowly got up. Hugo barely had enough time to even blink before the malestorm of flames burned his whole body in a storm of dragon flames. He yelled out in pain as his body was burned. How could someone so young be capable of inflicting such pain? His magic was basically useless against this child! Even the silver haired doctor was hurting him! How was that possible?

_'Baka.'_ Kosei thought as he took the moment to smoke his cigarette and watch the vortex of inferno burn Hugo alive. _'The moron probably hasn't noticed the fact that his magic is starting to drop. As powerful as __**Kyuzu(Surge)**__ is, it's main flaw is that it drains the caster of their magic at a steady pace. Even increasing the magic reserves of the mage won't stop it's draining affect. It'll only be a matter of time before his muscled body deflates.'_

The fire finally died down to reveal Hugo's skin tinted a lite red, his body smoking from the intense heat he suffered through.

Hugo didn't care of the horrible burns coating his body though, his mind was too filled with rage at the falling pink haired boy heading his way. "Get over here!" he roared, raising his hand at Natsu in a clawing motion, "_**Tachi Ten(Falling Heaven)**_!"

A heavy gravity suddenly gripped Natsu's entire body as he was pulled down towards Hugo's hand that he coated with magic to form a white spear head.

"Crap, crap, crap!" Natsu shouted in alarm, flailing his arms in hopes of stopping his descent, comical tears leaking out his plate sized eyes.

Kosei sighed at the sight, "Amateur." he grinned before swinging his strings at Hugo to stop him from stabbing into Natsu's intestines. They wrapped around the magic coated limb causing the Kyuzu mage to growl in annoyance.

"It's the same spell over and over again!" Hugo shouted in anger.

"Don't fix what's not broken." Kosei shrugged, commanding Hugo to move down his spear hand to his side just as Natsu fell face first to the ground.

"Itai!"

"Serves you right for being stupid." Kosei chuckled.

Looking down at the strings continuing to stall him, Hugo's eyes widened in shocked realization finally recognizing the spell coming from glasses wearing doctor. Flashes of blood gushing, people screaming, spells flying, and hooded people slaughtering everyone in sight flashed before his eyes, the laugh of a mad man in the background chilling his spine.

"Y-You o-one of t-them." Hugo stuttered in slight fear, the bored look on Kosei's overlapped by the face of madly grinning man with blood stained glasses in his eyes, "Your one of the councils dogs!"

Kosei's eyes briefly flashed into cold green before it was replaced with humor. He took a deep breath from his cigarette before chuckling at Hugo. "What are talking about, ugly. I'm just a stay at home doctor. I know nothing about the council or magic." he grinned coldly.

"Your lying!" snapping the strings keeping his arm down, Hugo lunged at Kosei, snarling angrily as he tried to pummel the doctor into a bloody pulp.

Hugo's punches came at Kosei in blurs that he easily weaved through like childs play. His muscles began to lose their mass, giving him his speed back. It was still useless as his enemy dodged every hit. Hugo tried a sweep kick to knock him down but failed, Kosei jumping over the kick to grab him by his face and delivering smashing knee to his jaw. The giant's body finally shrank back to his original size, which was a six foot two. Even as he lost his enhancement magic, Hugo continued to swing his fists at the doctor, his red eyes blinded by pure rage. Kosei ducked under a right hook then left, blocking a kick to the face that slightly pushed him back and slapping away backhand to his face.

"You took everything from me!" Hugo screamed, his eyes slightly glassing with tears as memories of his past flitted in his mind. "My family, my friends, my life!" he tried another right hook that the doctor caught with his hand. He grinded his teeth angrily, cursing that his spell had faded away.

"I have no clue what your talking about." Kosei scoffed, flinging back Hugo's arm back to him. "Your clearly delirious from the horrible burns coating over nearly your entire body. If you want, I am a doctor. I'm sure I can fix you back up." he said with amusement.

Stepping back from the silver haired doctor with a cold smile, Hugo clenched his hands tightly enough to have blood drip down his fists, "No, I remember clearly the day my world was colored red before a peaceful man of Kami took me in after everything I loved was slaughtered. I remember men from the council stepping into village and demanding everyone who knew anything about Kyuzu step up. They were dressed in white cloaks with hoods shadowing their faces from everyone and carried buster swords and lances with the councils symbol on them. And that's when they attacked." a tear dropped from Hugo's cheek as the memories played through his head, every horrid detail engraved inside his mind with perfect clarity, "WE were innocent! Just because many of my people had lost their minds with Kyuzu and tore towns and cities to the ground didn't mean we were all doomed to the same insane fate of powered driven monsters! But you dogs didn't care. Not one bit! You burned the whole place down and cut down the Kyuzu mages! They were my family! And you killed them! I was only eight years old when it happened and I was lucky enough to of survived!"

Even though he didn't have much magic power left in him, Hugo forced the last dregs of magic in his reserves to enlarge his body with muscles. Even if he didn't tower Kosei anymore, he still stood a two foots higher then him. Hugo coughed a blob of blood from the strain of forcing his spell back up but chose to ignore his insides feeling like they were being torn up.

"Your face. . ." he huffed, sweating from the strain as he glared at Kosei while grimacing, "I remember seeing a man with cracked glasses and the same cold green eyes, laughing at the carnage he and his soldiers were causing as they burned down my home. Even as I accepted Kami into my heart, I never let go the dark thoughts and joys of wanting to kill you with my bare hands. It was all because of you and those _**Kotai Moji(Solid Script)**_ mages that-"

"That's enough." Kosei cut Hugo off, glaring at him with stoic eyes as he shot off five neon green strings from his right fingertips to pierce through his body. Two strings dug into his chest close to his heart, two dug into his shoulders, and the last one stabbed into his gut. He then stretched his right hand over to his chest, the palm laid flat as the strings were alined like an instrument.

"_**Ten no Mojiretsu: Mazu Chui, Kizetsu(Heaven's Strings: First Note, Stun)**_." he said coldy. Flicking one of the strings digging into Hugo's skin, a light melodic sound rang out like he was playing an instrument, the sound sending a wave of numbness throughout Hugo's body.

"You seem to be confused, fool." Kosei said emotionlessly, playing a surprising melody from his strings to keep Hugo still, "First of all, I have never left my home except for important business which I have been accompanied by my family for. And second of all, I'm not a mage, nor am I a dog of the council. And you might want to keep that loose mouth of yours down." his eyes briefly moved over to Natsu who was standing back from his fall on shaky legs. Hopefully he didn't hear any of what Hugo said, "You never know who might be listening. Their are some secrets that are meant to be hidden away in the dark, even if it's meant to protect one person." smoke lingered on the ground surrounding the two in a toxic smoke cloud. It began wrap around Hugo, cutting off his oxygen as Kosei looked up at the big man with pity, "I think it's time we end this. Maybe the light you've been trying to force on others will clear that twisted mind of yours. But, unfortunately, I don't know any light magic, maybe dragon flames will suffice." he grinned before bright orange-red glow rose above them.

Natsu held two large flames apart from each other that glowed with raging fire, one colored with white hot flames and the other with red hot fire. _'With scorching white flames on my right, and hellish red flames on my left, put them together to create. . .'_

"_**Hakka(Ignite)**_." Kosei pointed a flickering flame straight at Hugo just as Natsu clapped his two hands together over the giants head.

"_**Karyu no Bakuen(Fire Dragon's Explosive Flame)**_!" Natsu roared. The two flames came together to create an erupting explosion in the form of a giant dome of dragon flames engulfing Hugo's entire body in it's wake. The earth was torn apart blowing back a powerful gust of wind that both Kosei and Natsu struggled to stand up against as the flames ate away at Hugo.

A soundless scream of pain tore at Hugo's throat as he felt like tiny little explosions tore apart at his body. The combustive smoke coming from Kosei's magic adding on to the powerful explosive fire. _'How could I be defeated? I was a man of Kami. Brought here to cleanse this town of it's sins that brought it to ruin two years ago. How could my lord forsake? I thought I was doing Kami's work.'_

The explosions finally died down to reveal Hugo on his knees, his entire body smoking with his mouth opened in mute scream and the white of his eyes showing. His body shrank back to normal size and mass, his skin dark red.

Kosei patted down his doctors to rid it of the smoke and ash dirtying it before he walked over to Hugo's unresponsive body. He looked deeply into his white eyes concluding that the Kyuzu mage was unconscious and poked his forehead. Hugo fell face flat on the ground a smoking mess.

"Well that was tiring." the doctor yawned in his hand, turning to look over at the stumbling Natsu trying to walk straight, "And just in time from the looks of it. You really fucked yourself over, Natsu." he grinned before patting the Dragon Slayer on the back.

Natsu gasped in pain falling on the ground from the good natured pat, weakly glaring up at Kosei, "Shut up, you shitty doctor." he mumbled before his glare turned into worry, "Is Levy okay?"

Kosei took one last smoke from his cigarette before flicking away and turning to look over one of the building near them, "She should be. I made sure to leave her somewhere she wouldn't be in harms way. By now, the Ruin Knights should be starting to make a move to counter attack Hugo now that their reinforcements are probably here. If they haven't got to her yet, we'll just stop by to take here with us back home."

Natsu sighed in relief as he gave in to the blackness eating away at his concise, "That's. . . good. . . to know." he grinned before passing out.

Kosei sighed at Natsu as he finally couldn't handle the pain. It must have been a new record for being able to stand such wounds at his age. A nine year old wasn't suppose to deal with these kinds of things. His wife was going to chew out his ear.

Picking up the knocked out Dragon Slayer who began snoring, Kosei took one last look back at Hugo's burnt body before shaking his head and moving on.

Things were about to change around here.

* * *

Alastor yawned as he stood back up from sitting on the railing, the big magic screen fading away once the fight ended. He cracked his neck feeling some strain from watching the fight as he watched the orange-red sunset set from over the town. The fight was definitely entertaining. Who knew the small pink haired kid had it in him to stand up against Hugo. The man was a monster.

But Natsu was horribly wounded in his fight with the Kyuzu mage and would of probably died if the doctor man hadn't intervened. He was still too out of his league to take on people like Hugo at his level.

"Alright, Volpe." Alastor said happily, "I think I've seen all I needed to see. Dragon boy definitely has some potential in him. I just wished I had some snacks to of enjoyed the battle." he pouted, "As fun and entertaining as it was, I can't help thinking it would have been better if I had some popcorn."

"Hai, Alastor-sama." Volpe sighed, nodding her head at the leader, "But why were you so interested in Natsu-san? Are you hoping to recruit him into our organization in the future?" she asked puzzled.

"Nah. I don't think a kid like him would want to join my cause."

"Then why are you so interested in him?"

Turning to look back at the sunset one more time, Alastor chuckled as they began to fade away into black shadowy embers in the wind.

"Life is boring without a little fun. A villain can't be a villain without someone trying to stop him. After all, darkness can't exist without a little bit of light."

The two black coated strangers finally disappeared into black wisps that flew off into the sunset.

The shouts of knights and people crying in relief of the disaster stopped, filling the town. The lone snoring of one Dragon Slayer drowned out in the roar of happiness.

* * *

_**Spell List**_

_**Zen'no Ken(Almighty Fist): Physical Magic:**_ The caster's fist is infused with magic that enhances their strength. Then they punch the air in front of the to let loose a powerful gust of wind in shape of a fist created from the force of the impact. The spell causes blunting damage.

_**Kyuzu(Surge): Enhancement Magic:**_ An illegal forbidden spell that enhances the bodies magic power and muscle mass to that of a giant. Almost similar to Titan magic, it has been known to drive the caster insane due to the magic energy clouding the mage's mind. Poisoning them to the point of insanity the magic spell was labeled as forbidden by the council after nearly every caster of the spell had lost their minds to the raw power flowing through them. The spell also drains the mage in a steady pace till it drains them completely.

_**Kyuzu: Kyodia no Tosshin(Surge: Giant's Rush): Enhancement Magic:**_ The mage rushes in with a powerful shoulder rush that sends raw magic energy into the opponent. It's affect has been known to jumble the senses and distort their vision.

_**Kyuzu: Seirei Kiretsu(Surge: Spirit Crack): Enhancement Magic:**_ Magic is gathered in the mage's palm to slam the opponent into the ground, cracking the the surface under. It's been known that those who can't take on the powerful force slamming into them to have their bodies completely cracked.

_**Saji Genkai(Surge Limit): Enhancement Magic: **_The final form of Kyuzu(Surge). The spell pushes the caster's body to it's limits, increasing their height and muscle mass to that of a giant. The body morphs into a demon like appearance and are capable to shake ground with something as simple as walking. Their body is also protected by a thin veil of magic against spells and physical attacks. But, using the final form of Kyuzu also drains their life force from the heavy strain on the body.

_**Kanso, Omoi Hanketsu(Requip, Heavy Judgment):**_ a hammer in the form of a holy cross. It is embedded with a lacrima infused with light magic.

_**Hakai no Zencho(Aura of Destruction): Light Magic:**_ Using a magic weapon, the caster casts a powerful golden ring of magic to resonate from the weapon every few seconds. It's been known to be used as an obstacle to keep the opponent on their feet.

_**Kurai Shutsugen(Dark Advent): Light Magic:**_ A powerful spell in form of a white halo. The halo explodes upon impact in a shower of white magic. It has been known to be thrown like shurikens by skilled casters.

_**Hikari no To(Tower of Light): Light/Lightning Magic:**_ A tower of blinding lighting that erupts under the ground. It causes the body to numb while also causing electrical burns.

_**Tachi Ten(Falling Heaven): Light/Gravity Magic:**_ The mage creates a powerful gravity field around the enemy while they are air borne to pull them forward to stab into with using light magic.

_**Kotai Moji: Gado(Solid Script: Guard):**_ The mage writes the word 'Guard' in the air in a complex pattern. The spell creates a barrier that protects them from physical and projectile spells. Although a powerful overwhelming spell is capable to shatter the barrier.

_**Kotai Moji:Kakusu(Solid Script:Hide):**_ The mage writes the word 'Hide' in front of them that wraps around their body to hide them away in an invisible veil.

_**Kotai Moji: Kumo(Solid Script: Cloud):**_ A spell that the mage writes the word 'Cloud' and uses it to cushion their fall. The word catches the mage in a fluffy, soft cloud, cushioning their impact.

_**Hakka(Ignite): Fire Magic:**_ A simple fire spell that summons a small flame to the casters finger. Mostly used to lite simple things like candles, cigarettes, and fire wood. While the flame is small, it is strong and can be used to lite explosions.

_**Haiiro Furea(Gray Flare): Smoke/Teleportation Magic:**_ The mage uses their smoke magic to conceal themselves from the enemy before disappearing from sight to a safe distance.

_**Kazanbai Kumo(Ash Cloud**_**):**_** Smoke Magic:**_ A combustive cloud of ash and smoke that can be used as cloud the senses and cut off their the air to their lungs. It has combustive properties imbedded in the smoke that can be used as an offensive spell, creating an explosion in the cloud of smoke.

_**Hai no Tokotsu(Ash Skulls): Smoke Magic:**_ A spell that produces toxic smoke skulls that are used to send flying as projectiles. The skulls are very potent with ash and smoke that suck away the air around the opponent once it blows up upon contact.

_**Mesu Kura:Rain(Dark Scalpel: Line): Dark Magic:**_ The caster coats their scalpel with dark magic that he uses to slash the air with, cutting a deep invisible ling into the enemy.

_**Ten no Mojiretsu(Heaven's Strings): Dark Magic:**_Glowing neon green strings sprout from the mage's fingertips that are tipped with sharp spikes. Their iron strong unlike normal strings and are useful in many ways. They can be used as whips to slash at the enemy, wrap around limbs to hold them down, or pierce through the skin. It's a dark spell since it's infused with dark magic that sends it's magic into the enemy once it pierces their skin, controlling their body like a puppet.

_**Ten no Mojiretsu: Mazu Chui, Kizetsu(Heaven's Strings: First Note, Stun): Dark/Instrument Magic:**_ Using the strings to stab into specific nerves in the body, the mage sends dark magic through the strings by playing melodic note. The magic coursing through their the nerves causes the body to go numb like as the tone plays, holding them still without anyway out.

_**Karyu no Koen(Fire Dragon's Brilliant Flame): Fire Dragon Slayer Magic:**_ The mage creates two big flames on each of their hands before clapping them together to create a big explosion. It has been known that the Dragon Slayer is capable of creating the explosion into a giant fireball and send it flying at the opponent like a bomb.

_**Karyu no Kenkaku(Fire Dragon's Sword Horn): Fire Dragon Slayer Magic: **_The Dragon Slayer coats their body in fire and rams into the enemy with a powerful headbutt that sends them flying in a burst of fire magic.

_**Karyu no Bakuen(Fire Dragon's Explosive Flame): Fire Dragon Slayer Magic:**_ Forming two different flames on each hand, the Dragon Slayer claps their hands together in the same way they perform Karyu no Koen, creating a dome of mini explosives that burn the body. The explosive force is enough to destroy everything in sight.

* * *

**The next chapter will wrap up the beginning of the first arc of the story and we'll continue on with our favorite Dragon Slayers adventures. The next arc two of Fairy Tails strongest will be introduced and a dark mage from the Balam Alliance. Who are they and why are they there? Five thousand Jewels you won't get it right.**

**Sorry if any of you were expecting a new chapter of my other story. As I said, I'm busy working on the new arc. Hopefully if your a fan of that story you'll bear the wait a bit and enjoy this chapter instead.**

**Well Hugo's down and the mysterious masked strangers have made an appearance. What are they after and what's their cause? Even after Hugo was defeated questions have risen and an unknown dark history surrounds the town. What has Levy have to do with it and will it cause problems in the future?**

**All this and more will be answered in time, but for now, Natsu will continue on in his search for his foster father, Igneel. Meeting powerful mages along the way while battling dark mages.**

**This is going to be fun.**

**Remember, read and review. And don't forget to keep sending me ideas for future characters and magic, even an arc you might think would fit in would be fine.**

**Till next time.**

**NeoShadows fading out.**


	4. Good Dark Mage Hunting

**What's up everyone! Guess who's back to writing with a double chapter release?**

**That's right! NeoShadows here and he's bringing in two new chapters to A Time Before Fairy Tails!**

**First of all, I'd like to apologize for not updating for so long. I nearly died of caffeine overdose and had to take a leave of absence in the process. But now I'm back and ready to get back to doing what I love!**

**Second of all, by the time you read the end of this chapter, you might be wondering where the Magic spell list is. Thing is, it's almost eleven at night and I got school tomorrow. I should of been knocked out an hour ago. When I come back from class, I'll get to writing and posting the list of new spells. Right now I got to finish up and get some shut eye.**

**And finally, I'm just glad to be back and hopefully my fans haven't lost interest with the story. Don't blame the story, blame me. Trust me, these are some of my best work.**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to Fairy Tail, they belong to Hiro Mashima.

I wish I could write like him. Then maybe I can actually have meaning in my work.

. . . Hah! Who am I kidding? I love writing fanfiction! Power to the fans!

* * *

Chapter 4: Good Dark Mage Hunting.

* * *

_(Chisana Ki, several days later.)_

It had been several day's since the event that would be known as the Day of the Sinful had taken place and the people of the small town of Chisana Ki were finally back into their usual rhythm of the day.

Though many had died, both innocent civilians and Rune Knights, the people of the small tree town were finally able to move on from the horrible events that had taken place. Even as some would wear scars, both physically and mentally, from the losing people they had lost to the horrible man known as Hugo Stonefist they would bear with the pain for the sake of those lost to his psychotic rage.

As it was right now the people were working hard to repair the parts of the town that were decimated in Hugo's way. Both the town and it's orphanage needed some serious work done.

On the matter of Hugo Stonefist, the heavily scorched man had been immediately taken in for his counts of murder and destruction. Thankfully it had been less of a hassle to take him in after the man had been beaten, burned, gashed, and bruised by a powerful mage. Hugo was still knocked out when the Rune Knights had arrived to the scene of the mayhem and put in place chains with the additional seals upon him. With a quarter of their men left untouched from Hugo's almighty fists and backup finally arriving to the scene just in time, it was safe to say they had no problems reigning in the insane man of god.

The only problem was how were they going to break it the council of Era that a man whose magic power could rival the weakest of Fiore's top ten Holy Saints was beaten by a child no older then ten! The one sent to deliver the news would be thrown out the building with the word Dumb-ass engraved onto their back with the roar of laughter leaving their presence all the way back to their home town.

You certainly had to feel sorry for that poor humiliated soul.

With Hugo being taken away, bound in numerous magic draining chains and seals, everyone was safe to go straight to rebuilding their damaged homes and searching for those unlucky enough to be caught in the insane mages line of destruction.

Yes, the town was at peace once again. The horror of being caught in another event that was thankfully enough halted in it's track from turning into another Kuro Yoake, slowly leaving them back into tranquil peace.

All thanks to one brave rose haired Dragon Slayer.

. . . Speaking of which, said little hero was busy dealing with another matter.

And that matter was trying to escape the clutches of a worried trio of females trying to keep him in bed so that he could recover from nearly being pummeled into a bloody pulp.

Not even saving the town could stop them from keeping him in bed for nearly three days.

"This. Sucks. So. Much!" Natsu growled while stuck in a spare bed inside the Melody household.

"Well too bad Natsu! You are going to stay in this bed whether you like it or not and that is final." Ella said sternly, shaking a finger at the bed cramped fire mage.

While she was grateful for Natsu saving the orphanage and her town from that mad man with the big muscles and scary eyes, she still couldn't forget the fact that he was still just a boy.

A boy who could eat fire and breath fire similar to dragons and who could survive beaten from an insane mage who's blow could kill a man alone but, a boy none the less.

Thank god her husband, Kosei, was a doctor. An amazing doctor at that. Natsu was in such bad shape when he had brought him, it was a miracle that he had survived without any lasting injuries.

Natsu grumbled to himself as he pouted. He was fine! Sure, that giant muscle headed bastard was hard to fight but, he came out on top without dying! Hugo was down and out and Natsu was the only one left standing in complete victory. No one could beat the almighty Natsu Dragneel!

Even if said almighty boy ended up falling unconscious moments after fighting from the insane amount of damage inflicted onto his body.

And maybe he had a little help from the smoking doctor that had come in to save him from being crushed by a slab of rock.

Alright, alright, alright! So maybe he was losing in the beginning and was completely overpowered by Hugo's strength alone but, he won at least! And their was no way he was settling for just getting by. He fought hard dammit!

Seeing the pink haired little hero pout in his bed, Ella sighed. She didn't want him feeling like she was ordering him to stay against his will, it was all for his health. It was all for the best.

"I'm sorry if you're feeling bored being stuck in your bed but, I don't want you straining yourself. Kosei said that you needed plenty of rest and you can't fight doctors orders."

"I can." Natsu answered simply. "I'm a Dragon Slayer, I can survive anything!"

"Then explain your cast and bandages." Ella said dully.

Natsu at least had the sincerity to blush embarrassingly while looking down at his current state. She was right. Bandages wrapped around his waist and across his chest with some rolling on his head from Hugo's stomps to his head. A weird heavy bandage called a cast with a sling was also wrapped around his heavily bruised left arm.

Okay, so he wasn't a hundred percent. He wasn't some kind of iron Dragon Slayer. Whoever heard of eating or fighting with metal?

"But I am alive." he grumbled while scratching his head. "Besides, having scars is awesome! Tou-san has scars and he's pretty awesome. He says scars make you look cool." he grinned, imagining his adoptive father in all his blazing glory.

Ella meanwhile sweat-dropped remembering the little fact of Natsu's father. She could only wonder what kind of influence a dragon could have with a child.

"Yes, I'm sure scars may look awesome to some but I don't really find them as appealing. Their just reminders of a painful event that won't go away." she smiled sadly before a cheerful grinned replaced it. Snipping a piece of string with her teeth while stitching a piece of fabric together, Ella spun around from her little desk next to Natsu's bed and presented the little Dragon Slayer with an all too familiar scarf.

"Their, all done!" she said happily with closed eyes.

Natsu's eyes shone in delight as he snatched Igneel's scarf back from the brunette before snuggling it close to his chest.

After the fight with Hugo his scarf had been torn up from spells that had been thrown at him. Blood also stained it and it had been dirtied from the long fight. But thankfully enough his scarf was as durable as his dragon like body.

"Thanks Ella!" Natsu cried in delight, glad that she could fix his scarf. "I don't know what I would of done if it ruined in my fight. This is all I have left of Igneel." he smiled softly, clutching the white scaled scarf tightly.

Ella couldn't help but look on gently with a smile as she saw how such a simple piece of clothing bring such joy to Natsu. If what he said was true then it only made sense that he would cherish the precious memories that it brought him.

But at the thought of his father, Ella couldn't help but frown remembering the fact he was orphaned. Wherever this 'Igneel' went he mustn't of been able to take Natsu with him. She couldn't believe that he would've of ever just of abandoned his son like that. No father would ever have the heart to do such a thing.

It must of broken Igneel's heart to leave his son but, Ella had to believe that he had no choice. Only now Natsu was all alone without a mother or father to watch over him, to protect him, or to love him up close.

And that was were the main problem lied. With no one to take care of him, how was Natsu going to survive all on his lone? Who would provide him shelter from the rough elements outside her home when things began to pour? An orphan as young as Natsu wouldn't be able to take care of himself all by himself. And as a mother it worried her.

Her thoughts were suddenly interrupted by the loud growl originating from the rose haired dragon mage who was trying his best to look at anything but Ella, his cheeks colored in an embarrassed blush.

She sighed, smiling at the boy's embarrassment. Just a child who had no need to of been fighting a monster.

"I think it's time you had something to eat. You must be starving having to wait for me to finish fixing your scarf." she stood up from her desk, ruffling Natsu's rosy locks with a giggle before making her out he door of the spare room. She smiled, winking back at Natsu who tried to keep his rumbling tummy quite, "I'll be right back with some well deserved hero breakfast."

Nodding vigorously at the thought of getting some of Ella's tasty cooking, Natsu laid back into his bed with a content sigh, his ears twitching a moment later after the brown haired women left at the sound of footsteps edging closer to his room. The familiar smell of ash and what he guessed was medicine with the weird hint of pastries the only hint of who might be coming to see him.

"Shitty doctor?" hearing a sigh of frustration as said man came into view only clarified Natsu's guess as he grinned at seeing the smoking glasses wearing man.

Kosei felt his eye twitch at the 'cute' nickname, as both his daughter and wife put it, the young mage gave him. Did no one have any respect for the fine arts of healing anymore? Or those who working in art? Bandits and dark mages got more respect then him!

"Learn my name brat. Or I'll sew that annoying mouth of yours shut tight." he twitched madly, holding himself back from smacking his patient for his disrespect. If only his wife wasn't around he would teach the boy to respect his elders.

Natsu shrugged off the doctors threat, choosing to relax his arms behind his head, "Whatever, Smoky. What do you want? Do you need me to beat up some more bad guy's again?" he said excitedly, only to get a dull look back from Kosei.

"No. You are done fighting mages that can easily kill Rune Knights with their fists alone. I should of just taken you away with Levy to a safer place instead of letting you fight Hugo with me." the smoking man groaned, remembering the beat down his loving darling Ella had inflicted once she found out he had let Natsu fight with his beaten and bruised state. No magic power and she still had a hell of punch. Not to mention that dreaded skillet of hers. Damn the day he had bought the cursed piece of metal as a gift.

"I don't now what the hell I was thinking when I let you fight alongside me. Although it would have been a tad difficult to take the man down without some sort of distraction to keep him busy."

"Oi!" Natsu shouted angrily, "I ain't some distraction! I'm what you see before you go nighty-night!"

"Yes, yes, and you are adorable." he said dryly with a smirk. Natsu growled at the silver haired man, hoping his glare would set his clothes on fire.

Unfortunately, Igneel never taught him how to set people on fire with his glare alone. How sad.

Done with the humorous banter, Kosei looked sternly at the young mage, his eyes hard and cold as arctic stones. The look brought a slight shiver down Natsu's spine.

"Did you understand any of the things Hugo said while we were fighting? Specifically the parts concerning his hate for me and Kotai Moji mages." he asked stoicly. That moron Hugo sure did have a rather loose mouth. He was spilling secrets that were meant to be looked away for good reason. Kosei could only hope that Natsu didn't understand the things he said while they were fighting. Their were just some things that were meant to be locked away for an eternity.

Natsu tilted his head in confusion, frowning in thought. He hated to say it but, he wasn't exactly listening to muscle-head's religious babbling. He was more concerned with trying to stay alive so he could scorch his ass black. Which he did. Even better was the fact he had ended up creating a new spell to fight. It hadn't even been a week yet and already he had created two new spells without Igneel.

But, no, he wasn't listening to Hugo's babbling. He was only able to catch bits and pieces of what he was saying really.

"No, not really." Natsu shook his head, bringing a sigh of relief from Kosei. But Natsu did frown though remembering a small bit that he had heard from the Kyuzu mage. "The only thing that I can clearly remember is that for some weird reason he. . . hated Levy-chan." he looked down with a scowl in thought. How could anyone hate Levy? She seemed like a nice person from what he could. Even if he had just met the Kotai Moji mage, he could tell she was sweet and kind, someone he was glad he was friends with. He could only scratch his head on why someone would hate her. "When I was fighting Hugo, she came out of nowhere to try and protect me with her magic and somehow it worked. It pissed him off when he saw Levy close up and started saying strange things like how she was the root of this town's sin and stuff like that. I didn't really understand what he was saying but, I did know that he was crazy so, it must have been nothing to worry."

That. . . wasn't good. Kosei rubbed his head feeling a headache coming on at what he had just heard. Of all things, he had hoped the boy's empty head would of let that piece of information go.

_'Hugo, you deranged bastard. Why'd you have to go shooting your mouth off to this kid. I can already tell that this will become a problem later on in the future.'_

Shaking away his thoughts, Kosei decided to take a seat next to the fire breathing brat.

"Listen Natsu." he sighed as he looked straight at the fire mage. "Ignore what that idiot was ranting about. It doesn't concern you right now. He was just an idiot who had let some grudge from long ago cloud his judgment. All the things he was spouting are better left alone, it's best for everyone if you just forget about it all."

"Why?" Natsu frowned, not really understanding what the doctor man was telling him. "I didn't really what the hell he was talking about because he was hurting people but, why is it important to just forget about it all?"

"I can't really tell you why, just know that if you don't want to hurt your new friend Levy, then it's best not to mention anything Hugo was saying." Kosei answered sternly, glad that he saw Natsu look concerned for his new friend.

"What does any of this have to do with Levy?" he didn't want to hurt Levy. She was his friend! If anything he wanted to protect from anything having to deal with danger.

"Idiot." Kosei said dully before knocking on the rose haired boy's head mildly, getting a shout of pain from Natsu. "Didn't I just tell you I can't tell you why? This is grown up matters, not kiddie matters." ignoring the teary eyed glare pointed at him, Kosei tried to bargain with the stubborn brat, "Look, if you keep hush-hush with Levy about what Hugo was rambling on about, I'll teach you something new. You like fire magic, right?" Natsu nodded, getting him to grin. If he could give him something to keep quiet about, then everything would be fine for now. "Great, then maybe I can teach you a new spell to mess around with. Granted it's not Dragon Slayer magic but, it's just as powerful."

Natsu was ready to jump at the offer of learning a new spell. How often did Igneel ever offer to teach him something new to do with his magic? Never! Other then his Mesturyu Ogis(Dragon Slayer's Secret Arts) which he still couldn't use on account of not having enough magic power to perform them and still not being able to control the spells, Igneel had never taught him any of his spells! The almighty dragon of fire literally told him to wing it and create his own spells instead of copying the original. While he did enjoy making up his own original spells, Natsu still wished that his faster father would of taught him his own techniques besides Karyu no Hoko. Other then training and helping him with creating his own fire dragon arts, the lazy bastard didn't help.

So learning an actual fire spell from someone who he knew was strong(Kosei did handle himself rather laid back while fighting Hugo and even brought him on his knees as much as Natsu hated to admit it) he couldn't help but want to jump at the the offer.

If only his natural curiosity and suspicion didn't get in the way.

Natsu looked up at the doctor with a frown on his face, suspicion clear in his onyx eyes. "Why are you so desperate to keep all this a secret from Levy-chan? What are you trying to hide?" he said with some warning in his tone, not liking that his new friend could get from all these talks of secrets.

"So you're not interested in my offer?" Kosei said in slight shock. He thought he had the simple minded kid figured out!

"No, I'm interested." Natsu answered blankly with a deadpan getting Kosei to refrain himself from strangling the brat for misleading him. And here he thought he wasn't easy to manipulate.

"Then why didn't you just say yes!" Seriously! The small town doctor was this close to using a mix of both magic and drugs to make him forget about their talk! Though it would have been just as easy to just knock on his head a couple of times. It didn't seem the kid had that much of brain to remember such things anyway.

"Because I want to know why I have to keep this from my friend!" Natsu growled. "What's the harm in letting her know why Hugo wanted to smash her into bits?! It could help if that guy ever got loose one day and decide to hunt her down! If this involves her, then she has the right to know about it!" he shouted.

"And I keep telling you that these are grown up matters!" Kosei shouted back, almost not believing that he was having this kind of fight with a kid about twenty years younger then him. "This doesn't only affect young Levy, this affects everyone in Fiore. The secret dealing with her is ancient and could bring this country on its knees if certain individuals learned of it." Trying his best to calm down, Kosei shook his head at nearly loosing his temper with a child. He was better then fighting with a boy who still didn't understand the matters of these kind of things.

Leaning back on his chair he closed his eye's in hopes of collecting his thoughts.

"Look, Natsu." he eventually spoke as the Dragon Slayer angrily looked away from the doctor with a scowl. He opened his eyes to try to look his sincerest to the young mage, "Just. . . trust me, okay? In this world, there are certain secrets that need to be kept hidden to protect certain groups of people. If said certain group is made up of one person it's best to protect them from the dark shadows that follow then and let them live there lives as if they were a just a normal person. There are some burdens that are just not meant to be cared by people as young as you and Levy." looking more serious then he had started, Kosei stared deep into Natsu's eyes, "For the protection of Levy's happiness and innocence, will you please say nothing of The Root of All Sin. Even if she mentions it just play it off as Hugo's insane babbling. As her friend she would believe you."

Natsu bit his lip fighting with himself on what to do. How could he lie to Levy? Even if he had just met the young smart blue haired girl a couple of days ago it still didn't seem right to lie to her.

In the end though Natsu sighed. But if it kept her safe then he would do whatever it takes to make sure neither of them found out about her secret. Besides, it wasn't like he was going to be sticking around long enough for it to be a problem. He still had to find Igneel after all.

"Fine." Natsu bitterly grumbled with a pout. "You still owe me though. Before I leave this town, you're teaching me this new spell you're talking about, you shitty doctor man." he grinned with his fangs poking out.

_'If it means keeping The Lost Ark without its key and map, I'd teach everything I know about magic.'_ Kosei was dead serious when it came to The Lost Ark. Years after settling into his new quiet, peaceful life as a doctor for Chisana Ki, his problems still followed him. Thought maybe it was a good thing that he had met the McGarden family. He could protect their secret even after they had all died away and left it all to their daughter.

He mentally sighed. Even if he wasn't part of The Order anymore, Kosei would make sure The Lost Ark was nothing but dust in history's pages. Not for those old farts, but for Levy's sake.

"Fine, whatever." Kosei waved away only to suddenly blink as he caught up to Natsu's words, ". . . You're not staying?" he asked confusingly getting Natsu to nod, "Why? While I don't really care if you stay in this town or not, my wife and daughter would be devastated. Especially Levy. If you didn't notice she hasn't much friends. Poor girl would be sadden with your departure."

Natsu shrugged while looking away, trying to keep the hint of sadness from showing at leaving the people he had come to know.

Dammit. This was why he didn't want to get close to anyone. It only made it that much harder when he had to leave.

"I have to find Igneel. I can't just hope to find him while I stay in this small town. Who knows? Maybe someone in some other town may of seen a flying dragon fly." he smiled sadly. "I'll never know unless I try."

Kosei nodded in understanding. While the chances of anyone seeing a flying fire dragon were slim, chances were chances. If Kosei was in Natsu's shoes he would do the same.

The sound of small feet suddenly caught both mages attention as they saw Levy come into view from Natsu's door. She smiled brightly with a blue book clutched close to her chest at both of them.

"How are you doing, Natsu?" She asked running up to Natsu's bed.

After long hours of worrying about the rose haired boy while Doc. Kosei worked his magic on his wounds, Levy was finally able to visit him. It was just too bad that he was asleep from all the painkillers that were pumped into his veins. For a whole day Levy had to wait for the Dragon Slayer to awake before she could talk to him. Besides what had happened the day previous to his fight with Hugo the two had talked about each others lives before they had met. Levy was curious about the mountain boy who was supposedly raised by a real life dragon. It was so hard to believe that Natsu was actually telling the truth but, the look in his eyes and the stories he had told her about his life with Igneel spoke volumes of truth of his claim.

To think Natsu actually possessed the power to slay dragons with his bare hands. To have such legendary power was amazing.

Levy was happy to say she had become a bit much more closer to the young Dragon Slayer after they had shared their short life stories with each other. She never actually had a friend she could really talk to about what she went through and was glad Natsu was their to listen to her story. It only made sense that he understood. They were orphans after all. Even if Natsu refused to admit it.

Natsu smiled at the blue haired girl as she stopped by his bed, "What's up, Levy? Where you been?" he asked confusingly, having not seen the smart girl for some time.

Levy smiled sheepishly, "Sorry. I've been busy reading some books Kosei-san let me borrow. I was so lost reading them all that I sorta lost track of time." she looked back up at said silver haired doctor with starry eyes as she held up the book in her hand, "I never knew you could own so many great books! The quantity of amazing literature you have in storage is baffling! Where did you acquire such sophisticated pieces of literature?"

". . . . Huh?" Natsu stared blankly not understanding some of the big words Levy had used.

You had to at least give Igneel credit for all his wisdom. A normal person wouldn't even be able to drill enough information for a thick headed boy such as Natsu to even form sentences.

Ignoring Natsu's confusion, Kosei grinned seeing such a high level piece of writing in the young girl's hands. "I see you enjoyed 'The Tales of a Rogue Mage'. I'm impressed that you were even able to find that book in my library, I haven't seen that thing in a long time." he ruffled the Levy's blue locks getting a cute pout of the Kotai Moji mage that he couldn't help but find amusing. "Trust me, you're going to enjoy it."

"But I already enjoyed it, Kosei-san." Levy smiled, stunning Kosei before the next word she said nearly broke him, "I enjoyed at least seven times since finding it three hours ago."

_'What the hell! That book took me at least a day to finish and another few hours to even understand the damn ending! How is it that a ten year old was able to read the whole damn book which consists of 500 hundred pages and understand it in a day!'_

Kosei's right brow madly twitched as he tried to comprehend what he had just heard. Well, the McGarden family did have a history of geniuses in their bloodline, their intellect was always their strongest assist. But at such a young age? Kosei could only fathom how far the young mage would grow.

_'Then theirs the pink haired little monster.'_ Glancing at the rose haired mage in question from the corner of his eye as he tried to understand what Levy was talking about while explaining the book, Kosei could only imagine what the future had in stores for him.

Natsu handled himself rather well in his fight with Hugo before he had made it to the scene. While he was still overpowered in the end he had showed true heart and courage against someone way above the food chain. Not to mention he was able to inflict some impressive damage upon Hugo despite his age.

_'Dragon Slayer. The power and potential to even kill the fabled Dragons with their bare hands alone. Such power at such a young age.'_ He could already tell that the boy would become a strong mage in the future. Which also meant that everywhere he went he'd leave a path of destruction after him.

The fight with Hugo had caused more damage to the surrounding area then they had prevented from happening. While the fact that Natsu had protected the people of Chisana Ki was more important then a few couple dozens of homes and shops being reduced to rubble it still left few slacked jaws hanging at the scene. And their was no way that Kosei was going to admit to helping the flame headed boy to defeat Hugo. He'd rather give the credit and all its glory to kid who didn't have a Jewel to his name to repair all the demolition. Let Natsu bask in the glory before someone was dumb enough to try and give him the bill for repairing the town.

Oh, how he would love to see that. Natsu would most likely burn the bill and the fool into a crisp. And that was bound to be a barrel full of laughs. Give the hero of the town who had defeated The Dark Twins and Stonefist Hugo the bill. That was smart.

At the thought of The Dark Twins Kosei frowned as he reached for his belt where a pair of charms were hooked.

They still had one more problem to deal with before everyone could celebrate. To think over nearly two dozen of innocent girls were sealed away in a deep sleep inside these dark charms. And they still were looking for the sealing formula to break them free from their entombment.

The only one capable of even breaking the seals was Levy at the moment. They couldn't go sending out a mission post to a guild at this point. It would take too long and they couldn't afford to wait any longer. Being kept under forced magical slumber was bound to leave some harmful side affects onto the mind and body.

"Levy," Kosei called to the blue haired girl who had stopped explaining the book to a boredly drooling Natsu, "did you break the seal array etched onto the Kuku Miryo yet? We don't have much time left before those poor girls suffer the effects of the dark charms."

Levy shook her head sadly at the doctors question getting him to sigh slight disappointment. The girl was smart, but still young. It was understandable that she wasn't able to solve a dark complex seal.

"But it's not because I can't solve it!" Levy shouted shocking Kosei. He looked back at her stunned that she had actually solved it. Then why did she shake her head no?

"It's just. . ." She looked down sadly. "While I was solving the key I found that the seals characters needed to break the ones trapped within its pocket dimension requires blood. To be more specific, the characters need to be written with the casters blood who had created the seal."

So that was the problem. Now he could see why she had shook her head at his question. Without the dark mage's blood to unseal the charms the formula she had come up with free the girls was useless.

"Damn." Kosei cursed, "Its been nearly a week since they had escaped. Just how are we going to break through the Kuku Miryo now."

Natsu frowned while listening to the two smart mages talk, "What? You mean Zankoku and Soko, the two bad guys I met? What about them?"

"We need them to so we can take their blood, willing or not." Kosei added darkly, scaring Levy a bit.

_'Scary.'_

"Then why not just go after them?"

"Because we have no idea where they may of went. Having been discovered and defeated by a mage they are most likely to of left country." Kosei thought out loud.

"No they haven't. There still close by."

". . . . What?"

Natsu nodded his head at the look of confusion written all over Kosei's face. "Their smell is feint, but I can still smell them close by. Their probably hiding out in a dense part of the forest surrounding this town after the butt kicking I handed them." he smiled smugly.

_'Does his heightened sense of smell really have the power to track the two even after days of fighting the mages? Is a Dragon Slayer really that powerful?'_ Again, such potential. With enough training the kid would be able to track a mage by scent miles away from him.

Kosei's eye's hardened as looked back at Natsu with the slightest hints of a smirk on his face.

Looked like they were going hunting for dark mages.

"Can you lead us to where they are exactly?"

Natsu smirked with a fire in his eye.

"As soon as I get my breakfast."

* * *

_(A few hours later, The West forests of Chisana Ki)_

Natsu felt his eye twitch.

"So how are we going to go through with this?"

"It's simple. We catch them by surprise and raid their camp the moment an opening shows itself."

"What an amazing plan of action Taicho!"

"But what if they can use magic? I don't know any offensive spells."

"It's alright, Levy. We can just use the soldiers as shields to protect ourselves."

"Hey! That's not nice!"

"Now, who said I was nice? I'm a doctor, not your mommy."

"Will everybody shut up!" Natsu loudly shouted having had enough with all the chatter surrounding him.

As they made their way through the west forest of Chisana Ki, Natsu was slowly losing his patience with the little party that they had gathered up to search for the two dark mages. His party consisted of at least a dozen of annoying, chatty, proud Rune Knights, a smoking doctor with the personality of a rock, and his one and only friend Levy.

After getting a fussy Ella and Carol to let him go out with Kosei and Levy to hunt down the mages responsible for the cases of missing girls around Chisana Ki and a few other towns and villages close by, they were prepared to leave when they had been stopped by a group of Rune Knights just as they were close to leaving into the forests outside of the towns walls. The Council was still investigating the events that had taken place during the incident with Hugo and were on strict orders not to let anyone leave the town till everything was reported to the council in Era. No exceptions.

That is, until they were filled in about the dark charms and the hunt for Zankoku and Soko, The Dark Twins with a bounty of 50,000 Jewels by the higher ups in Era. Once they had heard everything, they were happy to let the Dragon Slayer go by with the exception of letting them join in.

Natsu's obvious answer was a big, fat, no.

No way in hell was he going to let some weird guys in robes ruin his fun! These bastards were his prey! He wasn't just going to let them take the credit for beating them up. He didn't need any help, he already took care of them once and he was going to do it again.

But Kosei had told him that it was the only way of going through them. The doctor didn't like the idea of the councils men coming along either, but he was going to have to swallow his dislike for Rune Knights and bear with it. As annoying as they were, they could actually be of help to them with their magic.

So, in the end they had been accompanied by a dozen of Rune Knights with a captain to where Natsu had sniffed the strongest scent of their rotten scent and magic. The only problem was that they had discovered a few bandits rooming around, which they had dealt with easily. And that only meant one thing.

The dark mages must of grouped of with a band of bandits while they rested. Because Natsu himself knew that he had personally kicked their asses black and blue with a scorch or two all over.

Now they had to deal with mages and bandits. Which was fine with Natsu since it only meant more butts to burn black.

Currently though, the fire mage wasn't feeling too excited about fighting a band of bad guys as he glared up at one of the knights cowering beneath his stare in annoyance.

"Shut the hell up already! You guys don't' stop talking, do you? What part of I need concentration to focus on their smell don't you idiots understand?! It's like I'm talking to ten year old brats!" he shouted trying to stop himself from pulling his hair out in frustration.

Kosei grinned at the young mages predicament, "Preaching to the choir kid. Preaching to the choir." he chuckled.

The poor Rune Knight being glared down by kid thirty-years under then him sniffed at the hostility pointed at him, "You don't have to be so mean!" he nearly cried.

"Mean?! You haven't seen mean!" Natsu roared already feeling his fire magic coat his fist for a beat down.

Levy sighed as she watched her friend bully the weaker Rune Knights with his intimidating magic. Why couldn't he stop fighting with others? Since the knights had joined them, Natsu had been trying to scare the older men to leave them.

Of course the Rune Knights didn't feel an ounce of fear or intimidation from the small rose haired mage. He was just a kid. What did they have to be afraid of?

After watching said kid take out a group of bandits wielding fire lacrima powered staffs with his bare hands and witnessing said cute little kid eat fire and breath fire like it was nothing, it was safe to say that they now had a reason to be afraid. Be very afraid.

"Natsu, stop picking on the Rune Knights!" Levy shouted to fire mage, getting him to stop trying to grill the men. She pouted at his behavior, "We should be working together, not fighting with each other."

"Well said, young one." A cool voice smiled, slightly spooking Levy as the owner of the voice walked alongside the young girl.

The man wore a more formal, less garish attire from the other Rune Knights, with less of the religious look distinguishing soldiers. His attire consisted of an elegant dark jacket, with light edges and two buttoned bands on each cuff over a lighter shirt with the Council's dark symbol on it. He also wore loose, light suit pants held up by a massive belt, and distinctive, light shoes, bearing a snakeskin-like pattern. He had light tanned skin, amber yellow eyes, and black hair smoothed back with white highlight strips. Two small black blades were also clasped under the bands around his cuffs with light green lacrimas embedded in the handles. The only out of place thing about the man was the odd black arrow tattoo over his right eye.

"Hello, Blake-san." Levy smiled shyly up at the higher ranked soldier.

Blake chuckled softly at the small blue headed girl, finding her nervous attitude somewhat cute.

"Blake's just fine, Levy-chan. I may be the captain of the Rune Knights sent to your town, but it doesn't mean I'm as uptight as the Division Commanders or councilmen." he smiled.

"Riiiiiigght." Kosei drawled boredly as he walked alongside the two with a fresh cigarette in his mouth, "You can act smooth and cool as much as you like, Blake, but I know how you captains are really like. Cocky little shits full of arrogance and dumb-ass thinking mistaking bravery." they were all like that in his opinion, but then again, that was just him. Kosei never was too fond of anything dealing with the council. He knew he was being bias, but he had a right to his own opinion.

Blake frowned disapprovingly at the disrespectful tone in the doctors voice. "That's not a gentlemen thing to say, Melody-san. Especially in front of young, impressionable children. What would your wife think if she heard you disrespecting a higher ranked knight with foul language?"

"First of all," Kosei growled, narrowing his eyes at the captain, "don't talk about my wife as if you know her. You know nothing about my wonderful Ella."

"So, she wouldn't be disappointed with you using foul language around children." Blake quirked with a raised brow.

"No, she would beat the living shit out of me and wash my mouth with soup." Kosei answered plainly, getting looks of shock out of the knights listening to the two, "But that's beside the point. Second, the boy, Natsu, has more of a mouth on him then I do. I still don't understand how a ten-year old learned such foul language."

"What can I say?" Natsu shrugged as he walked away from the sighing men, "Igneel cursed a lot when he thought I wasn't looking, bad mouthing other dragons and saying how he was the great Igneel, and that his cute little son could beat the shit out of their brats." Igneel, while a wise and ancient being of fire, was one arrogant bastard. Natsu loved his father, but he got his strong-headed nature from somewhere.

"Cursing dragons? Now I've heard everything." shaking his head at the thought, Kosei returned to tell of Blake only to stop seeing him narrow his eyes ahead with his right hand raised up for silence.

"Let me guess." he inhaled deeply from his smoke, "You can see their base of operations up ahead, can't you?" he got a firm nod from the knight.

Natsu grimaced as a sudden foul smell attacked his senses as they came to a stop. He shut his eyes trying to fight off the dark aroma. "It's them alright." he panted trying to breath, the smell so foul he was shocked to find himself having trouble breathing, "But I swear, their magic wasn't as sick as it is now. What the hell happened to them?"

Up ahead of the mages and knights they could see smoke rising up from the dense foliage of the forest, the gashes and scratches littering the trees around them warning them that whoever was behind them were as hostile as the bandits they fought moments before. Trash also littered the dirt around them with cans, wrappers, filthy rags, and other unsightly material.

Disgust went through Natsu's mind as he looked at how filthy and horrible the bandits had treated the forests. Having lived in the mountains his whole life, Natsu had saw nature as his one and only home. It was where he was raised as a baby since being found by Igneel. To see any forest treated like it was a dump struck a cord inside the young mage.

Blake hummed in thought as he began to form a plan of strategy to attack the bandits and mages, already beginning to give out quiet orders to his men, "We'll have to be stealthy to catch them by surprise. We don't want to make any mistakes. Three of you flank their right, another their left, and the rest of us will take them out in mist the chaos while Kosei-san and the kids find a safe place to-" A sudden flare of fire cut off Blake as he was hit by a strong gust of wind that nearly knock him off his feet.

_'What in god's name?!'_ his eye's squinted in wake of the gust, catching a glimpse of the rose haired boy with the white scaled scarf bathed in fire. How was the boy creating such an intense blaze strong enough to create a small gale around him? He was just a child!

"Natsu?" Levy whispered in stunned silence.

_'Here we go.'_ Kosei smirked as he cracked his neck, ready for what was bound to come next. _'Lets sound off the attack.'_

"_Karyu no Hoko(Fire Dragon's Roar)!_" Natsu angrily roared before swinging his head at the trees and bushes blocking their view of what laid before them with a stream of orange-red flames from his mouth.

Everyone watched in amazement as the path in front of them was flooded with scorching flames, reducing everything in it's reach to ash. Their faces glowed within the spells wake with its orange flames.

As they watched the fire die away, they were greeted with the pissed off faces of over thirty men in dirty garbs and cloaks wielding metal clubs and bastards swords around an open fire.

And standing in front of the fire was one amused silver haired mage with the remains of a once large ax, his yellow eye's wide with madness.

"Miss me, gaki?" Zankoku laughed madly before spinning the leftovers of his ax by side. "_Kage no Ejji(Shadow's Edge)!_" A black, shadowy blur consumed the spinning pole a second later before coming to a complete stop, in its place, a wicked blade of misty black magic took the place of it's once metal ax blade.

He grinned in blood lust at the Rune Knights and Natsu before kicking up a powerful gale with the swing of his new ax that rustled everything within its range.

"I've been waiting till your short ass passed by here for quiet a while!" he chuckled as he watched Natsu's group struggle to stand against the swing of his ax. As the wind died down he was able to make out the rest of the idiots the brat had brought with him, mainly the little blue haired girl and dull looking man in the doctor's coat, "And what's this? You brought me a fresh new toy to make up for the one you had stolen and a doctor to fix your ass up after I'm done with you? Ehehehahaha! As if I'll forgive you or even leave you in one piece after the shit you did to me!"he roared.

_'What the hell happened to the idiot?'_ Natsu thought in confusion as he got a clear view of the man he had defeated days ago.

Nothing had really change about the man besides the couple of bandages covering the open flap of his cloak, but he could clearly make out the faintest of gleaming black on the middle of his chest. The magic surrounding him had definitely changed from last time. It was more dense and dark, like it could swallow him whole if it had the chance.

Flattening the his ruffled up robes, Blake loudly cleared his throat, calling the attention of everyone in the area to him before looking at the mad man with the shadow ax with stoic eyes, "Geretsuna Zankoku, I presume?" he said firmly, "Under the orders of the great Council of Era and Fiore, I, Blake Vector, first captain under the branch of the Third Custody Enforcement Unit, will bring you into justice!"

". . . Sure you will." Zankoku eyed the captain strangely, "Who are you and why should I not cut you in half for getting in the way of my sweet revenge?" he asked in annoyance.

Zankoku had waited nearly a whole week for the pink haired punk to pass by the only short way out of the town to jump him with the bandits he had hired with the Jewels he was paid from his new boss, and now a some prick from Era's army wanted a piece of him? Hah! The guy with the stupid arrow tattoo on his face was going to have to wait in line. He had smaller things to cut apart.

Blake fought the twitch in his eye as he tried to keep his appearance in front of his men, "I'm not repeating myself. I'm Blake Vector and I'm going to-"

"I thought you weren't going to repeat yourself?" Natsu cut off Blake, getting the Rune Knight captain to grind his teeth.

"The gaki's right. I thought you weren't going to repeat yourself." Zankoku smirked, "How very unprofessional."

"Shut up!" Blake shouted in embarrassment trying to hide the light blush on his face, "Criminals should keep their mouths shut!" Their was no way he was going to be humiliated by some second rate dark mage. He was a captain goddammit!

Snapping his fingers, his soldiers sprang to life as they took arms and flanked his sides, raising their metal staffs with lacrima orbs attached to their tops, all their faces stone faced. Even if his men weren't mages they could still fight off against some dirty thieves. They were trained to fight tougher.

Zankoku smirked seeing the captain call his dogs to seem threatening. So, that's how he wanted to play? "You all know what to do!" he grinned wildly to the equally blood thirsty bandits as they rose their weapons with cheers of dark delight, "Tear away the nuisances! But leave the rose haired little shit to me, or none of you get paid!"

"Killing time!~"

"Time to make my blood money!"

"Maybe I'll be able to buy a kinky slave from Brogo with my pay! I hear their really innocent."

"Such a cute little girl. Think I can keep her?"

"Lets see some blood!"

Levy shivered in fear of the loud shouts of sick and cruel taunts directed towards them as she tried to hide behind Kosei away from the their dark eyes.

"Kosei-san?" she whispered, clutching the silver haired man's medical coat tightly, "What are we going to do?"

Kosei didn't answer, his eyes seeming to be shadowed by his hair for quiet some time. He seemed unmoving as he stared down the ground without a sign of emotion coming off from him. The only sign of him actually feeling anything was the man tightly clenching his fists. His mind blank with rage.

Zankoku licked his lips as he pointed the top end of his ax at the frowning Natsu, his blood pumping with adrenaline and excitement, "Let's finish what you failed to end, fire boy! I'm dying to show you some new moves my boss blessed me!"

"Bring it! Don't think I'll go easy on you like last time! This time, I'll make sure you won't be able to get back up without breaking something!" Natsu smirked as his fists lite up with fire magic.

"I don't think so." Blake scoffed as he moved in front of the young Dragon Slayer to stare down the dark mage, "This is my duty. Only I will have the right to fight Geretsuna."

"No way!" Natsu shouted, knowing that something like this was going to happen. "I'm fighting him! I took him out once, and I can do it again! Find your own punching bag!"

"He's not a punching bag! He's a criminal!" Blake shouted back in annoyance, butting heads with rose haired mage, "I'm captain of this mission! What I say goes! Or do you want me to report you to the council!?"

"I don't care who you report me too! I'm fighting and that's that!"

"No, I'm fighting!"

Both mage and knight glared at each other with barred teeth snarling at one another, ready to erupt into physical violence to fight Zankoku. Which was idiotic as it went considering they should have been working together instead of fighting each other.

So it was a good thing that neither one had to back down as said dark mage was sent flying a second later with a kick by one pissed off house doctor.

Natsu stared in shock as he watched the plain doctor blur over Zankoku and send him flying off with a lighting quick kick to the man's head before landing where the man had once stood.

"W-What the hell, shitty doctor?!" Natsu stuttered in surprise, "That was my opponent! Why'd you have to-" Kosei glared back at the fire mage coldly, getting him to shut up as he felt a shiver run down his spine. He did not look happy.

_'Such speed!'_ Blake narrowed his eye's at Kosei with suspicion, having never seen a town doctor ever move so fast that he couldn't follow them with his well trained sight. This was no ordinary man. The speed and precision used in the kick was meant to snap his neck back weren't for Zankoku moving back enough for the hit to only send him off his feet. _'To be able to move so quick, is he a mage?'_

Zankoku grimaced as he wiped away the blood from his lip, the blow to his head having probably knocked a tooth or two. He spat some blood and saliva, glowering at the man in front of him. Yup, he knocked two out. What a bastard.

"What's your deal, you stupid shit?! You want to die too?" he hissed.

"No, not really." flicking one of the many sharp scalpels around his belt, Kosei continued to glare coldly at the shaggy haired mage before a small, cruel grin made its way to his face, "It's just, that earlier comment about regarding Levy-chan and my daughter as toys, really ticked me off."

"Oh really?" Zankoku licked his lips hungrily, thinking back to the girl he had lost due to Natsu, "If I don't recall, that daughter of yours was my newest toy. I don't remember me giving a shit if she had a family. Whoever heard of caring about the feelings of your toy!? Toys don't have feelings! Their meant for pleasure, and I have yet to break that little slut in-"

"_Mesu Kura: Ketsueki Sekkai(Dark Scalpel: Blood Incisions)_!" Neon green magic coated the small medical knife into a long, hooked blade reminiscent of long sword that swung at Zankoku's head, only to be blocked the shadowy ax blade at the dark mage's side. Kosei flicked another one of his many scalpels from his belt into his other open hand before it was enveloped in the same magic as its brother and went for Zankoku's heart.

Zankoku twisted his ax out of it's deadlock with the long blade of magic to defend against Kosei's second scalpel, swinging the large weapon at the small knife to knock it away.

Kosei ducked the next swing of the ax, jumping back up to aim another kick at the dark mage's ugly mug that the shadow mage blocked with his arm. Pushing him off, Zankoku swung his left open arm at the doctor, bringing in a wave of shadow magic to attack him. Kosei cut away the wave of magic with his blade hooked long scalpel into ribbon before dodging the wave of black magic with shocking flexibility.

_'Annoying shit!'_ Gathering black magic to the blunt end of his ax, Zankoku heaved his weapon high up before bringing it back down with a thundering crack.

"Koi Shunkan(Dark Moment)!" A black shock wave erupted out from under the yellow eyed mage's feet that threatened to toss everyone off their feet with it's black gale.

Kosei skidded back from the spell right by Natsu and Blake, falling on his knee feeling a sudden weakness in his limbs. He scoffed before reaching for his boots to reveal multiple cases of fluid injections strapped around his foot. He didn't spare a moment as he slammed the injection into his right leg.

"What was that for?" Natsu frowned as he watched the doctor stab himself with a weird capsule, "Why'd you hurt yourself?"

"That last spell," Kosei slightly gasped as he tried to keep his eyes open, feeling oddly weary, "was meant to tire the one's directly hit by the shock wave so that their reflexes would be too slow to counteract their swift strikes. So I injected a quick shot of herbs that re-energize the body, like a shot of adrenaline." feeling the weakness leave him a moment later, Kosei quickly got back up before looking back down at the Dragon Slayer sternly.

"Leave Zankoku to me." he practically ordered, his eye's leaving no room for argument as he looked back at the widely grinning mage, "You deal with his lackeys, I want no interruptions."

"Who says you have a saying in who you fight?" Zankoku heaved his heavy blade back to his shoulder, cracking his neck feeling it stiffen up, "I want the kid, not some boring old doctor with a couple of tricks up his sleeve." he laughed.

"And who said you had a say in who I kill?" Kosei cracked his hands menacingly at the other silver haired man, his Kura Mesu shrinking back down to its small blade, "You're the only threatning one of your group. Be thankful we're not all ganging up on you."

'Wait a minute!' Where was the fat one? Natsu tried searching around the bandits for the large man with the mace, only to find him absent from the group. 'Where did Soko go?'

Zankoku smirked seeing Natsu look around, already knowing who he was looking for. "Looking for someone?" he laughed with his tongue flying out before a big shadow flew overhead of him, "Don't worry, Soko wants to play too!"

"_Suisho Ana(Crystal Mine)_!"

"Move out of the way!" Blake shouted urgently just as a large fat man in a stretched out black cloak slammed a large mace with black lacrima spikes to the ground in front of them.

Everyone jump away just in time as black crystal spikes jutted out of the ground all around them. They glowed a dark purple before they all detonated in succession. Many of both parties getting hit by it's wide spread boom even when they had moved away from the spell.

"(cough)(cough) Y-You!" Natsu struggled to breath as some dust blew up in a large cloud from the detonations, his eye's glaring at the fat man standing in front of Zankoku with a new mace.

"Hi, Dragon boy!" Soko giggled, waving his hand excitedly at the glaring pink haired boy, "Miss me?"

"Like I'd miss rash." Natsu growled, stopping as he caught sight of something out of place from the child like man from the last time he saw him. The same black gem that he caught site of in Zankoku's chest was on Soko's forehead, gleaming brilliantly in the daylight. _'What's going on? His magic smells just as dark as his brother's. What the hell happened to give them a boost in magic power?'_

"I don't have time for this." Kosei sighed before disappearing from everyone's sight in a blur.

"Where did he go!" Zankoku barked angrily, only to be stunned as Kosei reappeared right by his shoulder.

"What!?" he shouted in panic before a large plume of gray ash blew up around him.

"_Haiji(Bellowing Ash)_." Kosei whispered, the cloud of ash spiraling within itself, and blinking out of existence with both mages disappearing from thin air.

"Zankoku-nii!" Soko shouted in worry before he was sent flying with a flaming hot kick to his stomach.

"_Karyu no Kagitsume(Fire Dragon's Talon)!_" Landing back from his spell, Natsu punched his fist into his palm with a challenging grin directed towards the down fat man.

"I should be mad that the shitty doctor took away my fun, but I just realized something. We never really got to fight each other last time, did we?"

Summoning two jets of fire from his palms, Natsu shot straight at the rising Soko like a rocket before sending him further into the forest with another blow to his gut, shouting one last thing to the captain as he watched the young boy fly off with a dangerous man.

"Take care of Levy-chan for me, Arrow-eye! I got some bacon to grill!" he laughed, disappearing from sight a moment later.

Blake growled to himself as he hide Levy behind himself just as the bandits began to spring into action. His men raised their staffs, ready to take down the strong arm men.

"What the hell am I?" he spat, moving his hand up as it glowed with black arrows printed on his fingers, "A babysitter!?"

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**And cut! That's a wrap people!**

**Things are about to heat up in here as mage against mage is about to take place. So, tune in next week for your weekly story!**

**. . . . Did I get ya? Ha! Don't worry, the next chapter should be up along with this one. But don't think you can skip out of reviewing. It's common courtesy.**

**NeoShadows fading in and out.**


	5. The First Steps to a New Path

**What is up my loyal fans? . . . And please, no, don't say the sky. I'm under a roof, sucks for you.**

**As I promised, double chapter release!**

**You're all lucky this was once a long ass chapter now split into to two. I stayed up all night to finish this on a school night!**

**Enjoy!**

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Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to Fairy Tail, they belong to Hiro Mashima.

But I do own some Oc's. Thank you my internet brothers and sisters from nother mothers. I couldn't of done it without you bastards.

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Chapter 5: The First Steps to a New Path.

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_(Kosei vs. Zankoku)_

Out in an open clearing of trees half a mile away from the camp, a large smoke cloud erupted out of nowhere, sending the two mages in its cloud jumping back from another.

They didn't seem to waste anytime in assaulting each other as they landed away from another, both men kicking up dirt as they clashed ax and scalpel blade in a deadlock that cracked the earth under them. Sparks of black-purple and neon green magic showered both mages in an effort to overpower their magic blade, a flare of each others magic rising between the two.

"Out of my way!" Zankoku roared, kicking the doctor away with a strong kick to his gut. He raised his shadow ax up high in the air before dropping it hard to the ground, sending an arc of shadow magic at the recovering man.

Coating his scalpel with his own dark magic, Kosei sent a retaliation arc of magic at Zankoku's own spell in a horizontal line. Both slashes met head on, erupting into smoke a second later. The action angering Zankoku before cleared the smoke with a way of his ax, raising a brow a moment later when he found no trace of Kosei. He growled before bending his back as the smoking man reappeared behind him to deal a slash at his spinal cord.

Zankoku dropped to his hands for support before twisting his legs around like a pinwheel in an attempt to knock the man's head back to stumble him. Kosei scoffed at the action, raising his arm to block the kicks and catch his leg. Taking a firm grip on the struggling appendage, Kosei took a big heave and threw the dark mage hard to slam into some trees.

"Don't think so!" Zankoku laughed, twisting himself in the air to drive his ax's shadow blade deep into the tree's trunk. Standing on the pole wide blade of his weapon, the yellow eyed silver head couldn't help but be impressed at how the man in front of him was able to keep up with him on even ground. It should of pissed him of greatly, especially since he had interrupted his business with Natsu, but he was starting to feel the thrill of the fight rise up within him.

"Not too shabby." he acknowledged, laying back on the tree carelessly, "Who knew some plain old doctor had such talent for fighting. Weren't your people suppose to heal, not kill?" he mocked with a sick smirk.

Kosei shrugged, not really caring that he was being insulted by such a mage, "What do I care if I save a life or take one. If you deserve it, you deserve it. I've never really had such great morals in my line of duty, all I need is a reason and we'll see if I can save you." pushing up his glasses with his middle finger, Kosei grinned lazily despite the cruel green eyes that looked back Zankoku, "But what should I know about killing, after all, I'm just your average, ordinary, stay at home doctor. I know no such things dealing with the art of killing."

"Ordinary my fucking ass!" Like he was just suppose to believe that he was an amateur. Zankoku was no fool. As a killer, he could see just who had the guts to end a life at whim and who was too weak to even think of such things. And the man standing before him was anything but an amateur. He was a veteran at best.

Black orbs lined with dark purple began to flow out of Zankoku's weapon steadily, alarming Kosei to the man's next spell.

"Fine, if you don't want to talk about it, your blood will be enough to quench my curiosity!" he laughed cruelly, batting the orbs of magic floating around him at the glasses wearing mage. "_Insei Fera(Negative Blow)!_"

Kosei weaved through the orbs with ease, jumping back from the next volley only to widen his eye's in surprise as three balls of magic came out of thin air to orbit around him. He cursed as the orbs began to expand in effort of crushing him within their space.

"Die!"

"_Mesu Kura: Ketsueki Sekkai(Dark Scalpel: Blood Incisions)!_" slicing the spell into ribbons, Kosei dashed through the explosion with blood trickling off his head. His cheeks puffed out comically before the next moment, Zankoku found the ground under him covered in smoking ash "_Kazanbai Kumo(Ash Cloud)!_"

Spewing the toxic cloud of smoke out from his lungs, Kosei summoned a small flame to his left index finger before shouting, "_Hakka(Ignite)!_"

A large explosion tore apart the area around them, catching Zankoku off guard as he was slammed through the tree he was on, burning him with spells hot explosion.

Catching himself in the air, Zankoku skidded to a stop before having to go on the defensive as the doctor jumped straight out of the smoke swinging his long, hooked scalpel. He tried weaving through the swings, only to wind up getting nicks and scratches from the incredible speeds he was swinging at.

He tried moving out of the way getting his head chopped off, only for blood to spike out of a gash to his cheek. Zankoku snarled in anger before smacking the the blunt end of his ax at the doctor's side.

Kosei gasped being caught off guard and paying the consequences as he was sent off his feet from the blow. He grunted in slight pain before his eye's widened and began to roll out of the way of the dark mage's attempts to chop in him in half.

"_Kage no Hanran(Rising Shadows)!_" Stomping the ground in front of him, Zankoku summoned spikes of shadow magic all around him to jut out of the ground. Blood flew as a few of the spikes pricked Kosei as he jumped back from the spell.

"_Kuro Katto-ha(Black Tearing Waves)!_"

"_Mesu Kura: Koto Ressho(Dark Scalpel: Soaring Lacerations)!_"

Waves of black, purple lined and neon green blades broke in between the two mages as they tried to dice each other into bloody cubes. Small magical explosions tore apart the space between them as the spell blades met head on, some of the blades breaking away from the torrents and slicing the opposing mages.

One last torrent of magical blades left both mages, resonating in a large shock wave that ruffled their clothes in it's wake.

Running through the dust and dirt kicked up from their spells, Kosei jumped up to kick back Zankoku's head, succeeding as he drove his foot over his chin. Momentarily stunned by the blow, Zankoku quickly recovered before catching Kosei by surprise as he swung his ax at the man's chest, slashing a deep line that spurted blood.

Kosei fell back onto the ground, clutching his bleeding chest in while cringing at the pain. That was unexpected. He should have been watching himself more.

"Does it hurt?" Zankoku mocked as he wiped away the blood from his mouth. "Don't be a baby. Your mother's not here to stitch it back up for you!"

"That may be true," slowly rising back up, Kosei ignored the sting to his wound as green light coated the hand clutching the wound, "but I can do that myself." he smirked, removing his hand to reveal neon green stitches where the stunned man had cut him.

"Well, aren't you full of surprises?" Zankoku glowered, gripping his ax tightly. "You're just as mouthy as that toy you stole from me."

The moment those words had left his mouth, he found himself staring straight at the doctors face in front of him.

_'Such speed!'_ He didn't even see him make any move to get in front of him! Just how powerful was this guy?

Emotionless green eyes stared straight into Zankoku's soul, causing the man to take a step back at the intensity of the gaze. It was as if he was being stared down by death itself.

"People like you make me sick." Zankoku's eye's widened in barely registered shock as he found Kosei's fist buried in the left side of his cheek, sending him falling if not for the knee to his stomach. He dried heaved at the force behind the blow only to choke as a rising kick to his neck nearly knocked him out.

Stumbling back, Zankoku was left defenseless as quick jabs to his weak spots bombarded him. How was the bastard hitting him!? The power boost Alastor-sama gave him should of made him unstoppable! So how was some stupid doctor landing hit after hit on him?

"Taking away a parents child for your sick, twisted pleasures." flashes of his cherished Carol as a child flashed before Kosei's mind as he took out his scalpels again to slash two verticals lines from the opposite directions into Zankoku's chest, blood staining his tattered medical coat with his blood. Raising his right arm up, he jabbed his elbow into the slave shippers cheek, earning him a loud crack from the mans bones. He glared coldly down at Zankoku as he fell on one knee to hold his bloody mouth in pain, his glasses flashing ominously in the sunlight. "What right do you have to steal our children for your own?"

"W-What r-right?" Zankoku hoarsely chuckled amusingly, weakly getting up from the assault he had just taken. He spat a blob of blood out from his mouth, noticing he had lost a couple more teeth from the hit to his cheek. "I don't care who the toy belongs to, if I like it, I'm taking it! But I'm not a bad man, you know?" he licked his lips hungrily with blood seeping out of his mouth, "Once I'm done having my fun with the toy, I like to share it with a couple of friends and even give them my toys to keep, for the right price of course! I'm child at heart, you know! I like to chew on my toy tenderly, lick it, caress it as much as I want, mess around it as much as I want, and have my way with my toy just as any child would!" he laughed with a disgusting, dark tone.

"And now that I'm part of an organization that gives me power and freedom to do whatever I like, I can play with as much toys as I want and sell them to as many countries as I like! Nothing can stop me!" he roared to the madly scowling Kosei, his eyes wide with madness as shadow like energy spiraled around him menacingly, "Not you! Not that dragon gaki! And certainly not the council of Era! Do you know why? Because I'm fucking Zankoku Geretsuna, one the Seven Sins, Lust! And there is nothing you can fucking do to stop me!"

"Except kill you."

"That's right! Except kill me-. . . What?" Zankoku frowned confusingly before he found three sharp strings made of magic buried in his chest.

"W-What the fuck!?" he shouted in shocked anger.

"_Ten no Mojiretsu(Heaven's Strings)._" pulling back the magic strings roughly, Kosei dug his right fist deep into the sick man's stomach, causing blood and spittle to fly out of his heaving mouth.

"Of all the sick, twisted, demented waste of life's that I have had the misfortune to meet, you seem to be the worst of the bunch." dropping Zankoku off his fist, looked down at the man with a look of disgust written all over, "No remorse, no regrets, no care for the innocence that you had soiled with your wickedness. A man of true sinful lust. I have no doubt in my mind anymore." he nodded firmly as he brought out two more scalpels in each hand. "_Mesu Kura:Tsuin Ketsueki Sekkai(Dark Scalpel:Twin Blood Incisions)!_"

Laying the both hooked blades against Zankoku's neck like a pair of scissors, Kosei gave the man one last look of blankness before uttering his last words of the fight.

"You're going to play for even laying your eyes on my daughter and all the innocent girls you have taken from their loved ones. Burn in hell, vile worm."

Zankoku's eye's were wide with fear before all he saw was a flash of green.

* * *

_(Natsu vs. Soko)_

"Where the hell are you, fat-ass!?" Natsu scowled as he stomped around the forest looking for the bald headed man. It wasn't that long that he had brought the fat mage out far from the group with a blazing kick. Once they had landed, Soko had started crying about how much of a bully he was from taking him away from his nii-san and ran off to go search for him.

"What a baby." Natsu grumbled, kicking the random rock that came along his path. How were they suppose to fight when the idiot was off hiding? He was a grown ass man! If anything, it should have been Natsu that went running away.

Which, of course Natsu wasn't going to do. He had beaten the sack of fat already. He was sure he could do it again. All he really had to do was find Soko and another flaming kick later he was done. Simple as that.

"_Suisho Ana(Crystal Mine)!_" Multiple black crystals sprouted out from the ground under Natsu causing the young mage to shield his face already knowing what came next.

A loud boom echoed into the forest as Natsu flew out of the explosion with minimal scratches having a tough resistance to both flames and explosions alike. He growled as the smoke dissipated to reveal the happily smiling bald headed with his new cruel mace. The crystals weren't red anymore, having turned into misty black, wicked tipped spikes jutting out of the silver mace. Its chain no longer attached to his belt but to metal cuffs on his right wrist.

"Hi, Dragon boy! Why are you chasing Soko?" he frowned confusingly.

"Good question!" Natsu barked angrily, pointing his finger accusingly at the big man, "Why'd you attack me if you don't even know why I'm chasing you!" How dumb was this idiot! Natsu knew he wasn't the smartest dragon in the sky, but even he wasn't that dense and stupid.

Soko hummed, tapping his cheeks in thought before clapping his hands happily with an innocent smile, "Because we're playing a game! Oh! Soko loves to play this game!" he giggled.

"Game?" Natsu frowned, "What game?"

Natsu should of never asked. Such an innocent smile and answer was never meant to be used with Soko's face.

Raising his mace up high above his head, Soko gave Natsu an honest to goodness smile as he answered happily, black-purple magical energy twisting around the spiked ball madly, "We're going to play the slaughtering game! Soko loves seeing red showers!"

Natsu was too stunned by the honest, innocent answer that he couldn't even block the next spell aimed towards him.

"_Haku Ippin(Gem of Night)!_" Soko shouted happily, bringing down his weapon that was wavering with black energy to strike the ground.

All Natsu was able to see the moment after that, was total darkness.

* * *

_(Blake, Levy, and the Rune Knights vs. The Ravage Bandits)_

"Fire!" One of the bandits shouted loudly to his brothers as they raised up a couple of cannon like guns towards the knights.

Blake didn't even blink as the next moment, various elemental shots of magic headed towards them. All he did was thrust his right palm at the projectiles, the index of his finger glowing a red-black arrow.

"_Zen Ikikata:Josho Maku(All Directions:Rising Mark)!_"

From out of nowhere, a light purple arrow sign blurred in front the Rune Knights. The bandits were left with their mouths hanging wide open as a second later of their shots hitting their mark, they changed their paths and curved to rise high up in the air.

Blake smirked as the magical elemental bullets blew up in a plume of fire that fell down back to the earth with a roar behind him. "Is that all you got?" he chuckled in amusement.

"That's our Taicho!" One of the Rune Knights grinned, ducking under a large blade before jamming his staff into the enemies gut. A second later, the bandit lite up like holiday lights from the lightning lacrima in the staff.

Levy watching in amazement as another volley of magical bullets was sent their way only to be sent back towards where they came from by a sign thanks to Blake.

"_Zen Ikikata: Gyaku Maku(All Directions: Reverse Mark)!_"

"Wow." Levy whispered as she watched the knights fight off the raggy bandits valiantly. Never had she seen a fight like this before. To actually see Rune Knights fight was amazing. Even while they weren't mages themselves, they knew how to use what they had and knew how to fight.

Hearing a loud shout from here left, Levy nearly jumped from her safe spot behind Blake as she saw a brown haired man in a dirty, torn down vest and baggy pants run up to them with a buster sword. She tugged on Blake's coat only to notice him occupied with sending a large blast of fire up into the sky.

_'Guess I have no choice.' _Swallowing her nervousness, Levy put on a look of confidence before swiping her right index finger in front of herself.

"_Kotai Moji:Gado(Solid Script:Guard)!_" she yelled just in time for the captain of the Rune Knights to turn around and watch as blocked letters forming the word 'Guard' sprung out from thin air.

Striking down at the small girl with a cruel grin, the bandit nearly choked on his own spit as his large blade was blocked by a barrier formed from letters. He growled in anger before attempting to break the barrier with multiple downward slashes.

But each strike continued to bounce off like it was a spring.

"What kind of shit is this!" The bandit shouted, glaring down at the blue haired girl with mad eyes, "Why won't you die?!"

"I think I've had enough of your foul mouth." Blake sighed, trying to hide his amazement at what he just witnessed. Laying his left hand flat, the black haired mage swung his hand in a downward strike, the blade attached to his gloves sending a blade of purple magic flying at the bandit, " _Zen Ikikata:Yoko Fin(All Directions:Horizontal Blade)!_"

The bandit smirked before moving to the side to dodge the upcoming spell, "Don't take me for a fool, stupid shit! I'm smarter then you thin-" Blood gushed from the line dealt to his chest, the intense pain causing the man to faint after noticing he had somehow been cut even when he had dodged the attack.

"Foolish." Blake sighed, fixing his blade back into place as he looked down at Levy with a smile, "No matter how you dodge or what direction you are at, my _**Zen Ikikata(All Directions)**_ magic will always hit you."

"That was amazing, Blake-san!" Levy praised, looking up the man a smile of her own, "Even when he had dodged your spell, he was somehow still hit! I'm guessing your magic has the capability to affect the directions of anything you like, right?"

Blake clapped his hands, impressed with the young girl's guess, "Amazing. Just by watching a few of my spells, you seemed to of already discovered its purpose. What a smart little girl you are."

Levy blushed at the praise she was handed before her eyes widened seeing a large plume of black magic erupt from overhead the direction Natsu had left towards like a mini volcano.

"Natsu!" Levy shouted in worry.

"Don't get distracted now!" Blake yelled just as two bandits tried to stab at him and Levy from both sides. He shot both of his hands at the men just as they were second from striking through their hearts, "_Zen Ikikata:Teishi Maku(All Directions:Stop Mark)!_" a purple stop sign glowed brilliantly under both bandits feet, freezing them in place before Blake laid his palms down at his feet, "_Kotta Isshun:Rasen Odori(Frozen Moment:Spiraling Dance)!_" placing a spinning arrow sign under him, Blake stretched out his arms flat before spinning wildly in place. His wrist blades cut deeply into the bandits sending blood flying before he ended his spell to kick both wounded men away.

"Pay attention to what's happening now! I may not want to bring you into the fighting, but we have no choice but to all fight!" Explosions rang out from all around the two causing Levy to close her eyes.

He was right though. If she wanted to see Natsu again, she was going to have to make it through this.

* * *

_(Back to Natsu vs. Soko)_

Natsu gasped as blood caked the side of his head from the unbelievable spell he had just escaped from. Even when he had called on his flames to protect him at the very last second, the dragon mage still found himself taking damage.

The area around them was torn up from the immense flooding black magic tearing apart the trees from their roots and creating a crater under their feet.

Standing back while trying to keep his legs from shaking, Natsu narrowed his eyes at the giggling, child-like man in the middle of the mess.

"You're stronger then I took you for." Natsu winced, hoping Soko wouldn't use the same move twice.

"Thank you!" Soko blushed, giggling into his hands before smiling innocently, "Nii-san and Soko was given this new power by Horn-san! Now we can make things go boom and make pretty fire!"

"Pretty fire, huh?" Natsu smirked evilly, "Want to see some really pretty fire?"

Soko gasped, "Really? Show me, show me, show me!" he shouted giggly.

"Alright." grinning, Natsu summoned two large flames from both his hands. This was almost too easy.

"With a flame on my right hand, and a flame on my left, put them together," clapping both flames together, a large explosion broke out from under the pink haired boy's feet that he brought up above his head, "and this is what you get! _Karyu no Koen(Fire Dragon's Brilliant Flame)!_" not giving Soko time to realize that he was attacking, Natsu threw the explosive grenade like ball of dragon fire in an arc at the unsuspecting mage.

A loud shout of pain rang in Natsu's ear's a moment later as his spell hit, blowing up in Soko's face while enveloping him a hot inferno of fire. "That ought to do it!" he closed his eye's in victory before he was forced to jump back as black crystals rose up from the flames to try and stab him.

"Bad Dragon boy!" flying out of the flames covered in burns, Soko's beady eye's were wide in anger as he swung his mace wildly at the dodging boy.

Ducking under a swing to his head, Natsu tried to land his fist into Soko's stomach, only to have his arm spring back from the fat acting like a cushion. He backed away before puffing his cheeks with flames that he blew at the large man.

Soko slammed his mace down in front of him, creating a wall of crystals to block the flames. He then smashed his mace into the wall, sending it's shattered pieces of shrapnel flying. The shattered crystal blew up as Natsu blew another stream of flames to stop the projectiles. He dashed through the smoke before attempting to punch Soko's gut again, "_Karyu no Tekken(Fire Dragon's Iron Fist)!_" he roared, driving his flaming fist deep into the bald man's gut.

Gasping in pain, Soko was sent spiraling into a fallen tree with a shout of pain. He rubbed his bleeding head, sniffing as he slowly got back up on his feet.

"You're a bad boy, Dragon boy." Soko sniffled, shaking his head as he seemed to become enraged. He huffed like a bull, blowing out an odd black steam from his nose that confused Natsu, "Bad boy's deserve to be punished! Soko's going to kill you!" he shouted as if he was a pissed off child.

The chain attached to mace showed amazing reach as he sent it shooting off towards Natsu. He dodged the deadly weapon, spinning out of the way as it came back to strike his spine, and moved to the right as it tried to slam from above him. Each time the mace had struck the ground left more its crystals sprouting out from the dirt.

Dodging another mace to the head, ran under the chain of the weapon shooting where his skull would be to double stomp his feet into Soko's gut. Adding jets fire to his hands, Natsu was about to send the big man flying again only to be confused as Soko stood in place. His feet dug deep into his gut and a powerful wind struck him as he tried to add more power into his jets.

_'What's going on?'_ looking back at the chain, Natsu's jaw dropped seeing the mace buried in between couple of fallen trees. Bastard was using the trees as support to keep him standing!

Soko grinned catching the funny spiky pink haired boy by surprise before raising his fist. He drilled the boy straight in the face with a devastating fist to his face. Natsu was sent falling back far away from the Soko before he found himself lying in the middle of a garden of black crystals from the dark mage's early strikes.

"Dammit!" he cursed before the crystals all detonated.

Watching the smoke bellow from the explosion, Soko giggled in delight, happy that he had killed the bad boy. "Yay! He's dead!"

"Don't think so!" blowing back the explosion, Natsu sucked in the flames of the detonation into his mouth, his belly expanding with fire before deflating as he digested the magic. He wiped his mouth with a burp of content, smirking back at the fuming fat mage, "Your stupid explosions won't work on me! I'm a Dragon Slayer! I can eat any type of fire!"

"Why you no go bye-bye!?" Soko snarled before wildly slamming his mace everywhere.

Natsu sweated as more of those sharp spikes of glass rose up around him. While he could eat their flames, he couldn't protect himself from their sharp edges.

It was almost like he was jumping all around a garden of darkly beautiful crystals, with every miss Soko brought up another weeding crop of his annoying magic. How was he this much harder to knock out then the first time they meet? All he had to do before was use one spell and he was out like the sun! Something was definitely not right.

That black gem dug in his forehead was definitely a big clue to Soko's change in magic. When he had fought Zankoku and him together, the gem wasn't anywhere on their body. And the smell it produced. It made Natsu want to gag in disgust. Then their was this Horn-san he was talking about earlier before. Did he give them some kind of magical boost before meeting them?

"_Karyu no Koen(Fire Dragon's Brilliant Flame)!_" Fed up with all the crystals surrounding him like wild plants of glass, Natsu enveloped himself in a large flaming explosion that shattered all the crystals around him. Quickly moving back from Soko's many swings, Natsu tried to come up with a plan of strategy to fight back against the dark mage.

Hitting him in the belly wasn't going to work. God knows how many times he had tried that. He could use his fire, but he would run out of magic pretty quickly if he spammed spell after spell in hopes that Soko wouldn't dodge any. Hand to hand was another big no. The guy had a metal ball with spikes! Not even his dragon like body would be able to survive a direct hit from something like that. Growling as he felt the mace graze his cheek, Natsu did his best to keep himself from flat out punching the man's face in.

"Wait! That's it!" Stopping as the deadly spiked weapon flew by him, Natsu made a mad dash straight towards Soko with a shit eating grin. Just as he came close enough strike the man in the stomach, Soko roughly pulled back the mace, only to have Natsu jump over it with a look of victory in his eye's.

_'Strike the head! If none of the above works, always aim for their weakest spot! The head!'_ summoning an orange-red blaze to coat his right leg, Natsu flipped in midair to face Soko upside before grinning smugly in the man's face.

"Eat this!" he shouted in his face, bringing his scorching foot down hard onto the child-like man's skull, "_Karyu no Kagitsume(Fire Dragon's Talon)!_"

Pain filled Soko's mind as he fell back on his bottom, clutching his head in agony with tears threatening to spill out from his eye's. He tried to swallow the tears of pain only to end up whimpering like a small child, not being able to deal with the strong blow.

"Ow! It hurts! It really, really hurts!" he sobbed into his hands.

Natsu grimaced not believing that he actually started feel the slightest of regret for the kick to his head. _'This guy really does act like a little kid.'_ he couldn't help but frown at Soko's personality. This guy really did act innocent too. Like he didn't even understand the rights and wrongs of his actions. But that just sounded too messed up to be true. Who even teach him that what he was doing was bad?

"Why does it hurt! Nii-san always told me that I was never going to get hurt! So why am I hurting now?!" he continued to cry, getting Natsu to freeze as a thought struck him.

"H-Hey." Natsu smiled nervously as he slowly approached the sobbing mage. "Are you okay? I didn't mean to hurt you." Yes. Yes he did mean to hurt him. Really bad too. But now he was starting to see that maybe the guy was just confused.

Sniffing back his tears, Soko whimpered as the pink haired boy stopped in front of him with smile, letting go of his weapon as he wiped his eye's.

"Really?" Soko whispered hopefully, smiling happily seeing the dragon mage nod a moment later.

"Yeah, I'm sorry." No he wasn't. "I don't want to fight you, it's just you're trying to kill me." No shit he was trying to kill him! That fucking spell that cleared away the trees around them was clearly meant for a one shot kill.

Soko nodded in slight understanding as he cleaned away the last of his tears. "Soko's sorry. But nii-san ordered me to kill you. Soko has to listen to nii-san because nii-san is nii-san."

"But, killing's bad." Natsu frowned disappointingly at the big man who was double his size. "Didn't anyone ever teach you that?"

"Bad?" Soko tapped his cheek innocently, "Killing bad? But Zankoku-nii always taught Soko that killing was good. He said that killing them sent them to a happy place where they can play with their family. Killing isn't bad. It's good." he giggled getting Natsu to fight the strong sick feeling forming in the pit of his stomach.

_'That sick bastard!'_ How could anyone teach such a seemingly nice person that killing was a good thing!? He knew Zankoku was sick, but this was way beyond anything he had thought of.

". . . How old were you when he taught you that?" Natsu struggled to speak, finding the urge to burn up with fire in anger harder by the minute.

What Soko said next, really made it difficult for him not find the bastard to turn him to ash.

"Zankoku taught Soko how to kill when he was 8-years old. He taught Soko how to kill our adoptive parents. It was really fun." he giggled.

Soko stopped his giggling as an inferno of fire magic erupted out of Natsu's body in utter rage at what he had just heard.

He was twisted into this innocent killing machine by his own family?! Natsu wouldn't stand for it. The flames wavering from his body was proof enough at how pissed off he was.

"Soko, do you have any friends at all?" he whispered softly, getting the man to stare in confusion at what he had just said.

"Friends? What's that?"

Natsu snapped.

Nearly being blown back from the powerful gust of wind kicking up around Natsu, Soko weakly got back up just as the boy looked up at him with bold onyx eye's.

"I'm going to beat the living magic out of Zankoku!" Natsu snarled angrily, getting the child-like man to frown at his words, "He's going to pay for what he did to you!"

"But Soko loves Zankoku-nii!" Soko shouted worriedly, picking his mace back up to glare angrily down at Natsu, "Soko's not going to let you hurt him!"

"Too bad!" Natsu roared before he rammed into Soko's chest while still covered in fire, "_Karyu no Kenkaku(Fire Dragon's Sword Horn)!_" blasting a strong burst of flames from his head to send him spiraling in a blazing mess, Natsu landed back on his feet to gaze at the fallen dark mage with a mixture of sympathy and anger.

"Just try to stop me. I may feel bad for you, but it doesn't mean I won't knock you out cold like last time."

"Haku Ippin(Gem of Night)!"

Natsu stood firmly in place as he watched the roaring flood of dense black magic erupt from Soko, the earth torn up into rubble as the deadly spell raged towards him. His rosy locks of hair was blown back by the ferocious spell moments from wrecking his small body.

"Lets try this again." Natsu grinned, bringing back his arms. Two large flames roared to life on each hand, one colored with burning red fire, and the other with white hot fire.

_'Just wait till I find you, Zankoku. You're going to pay for twisting this idiots mind!'_ That was a promise.

"_Karyu no Bakuen(Fire Dragon's Explosive Flame)!_"

From far away of the forest, two large plumes of fire and darkness could be seen over the trees of the west forests of Chisana Ki, both barely half a mile away from each other. Both fights close to an end.

* * *

_(Back with Levy and company.)_

"And that's that." Sighing while wiping the sweat from his head, Blake dropped the last knocked out bandit into a pile of beaten up, scorched, and bruised men in rags.

Damn was that tiring. Dealing with over thirty wild, ruthless bandits with large blades, magical guns, and no sense for danger was a challenge. Especially when he had to protect a young girl in the midst of all the chaos. He had to juggle fighting off bandits and guarding.

"_Kotai Moji:Kusari Ga(Solid Script:Chains)_!"

'Thank god she's a mage.' Blake couldn't help but chuckle as he watched the blue haired girl create chains in form of their word in a black steel font to restrain all the beaten up bandits together.

Young she may have been, but she had guarded his back while he was distracted with fighting using her own magic. Incredible. He had to give thanks to the girl some time.

Running up to his captain, one the Rune Knights under his orders gave the arrowed eyed man a tired salute, dropping off a couple more beaten up thieves to his feet.

"That should be all of them, Blake-taicho!"

Blake nodded at the man, dismissing him before turning to look back at the sweating girl with an apologetic smile, "Levy? Mind restraining these criminals as well? If it's not too much by the way."

"It's alright." Levy smiled before going to work on creating more chains, "The sooner we finish here, the sooner we can go and help Natsu and Kosei-san."

_'If their in one piece.'_ Blake had to give the doctor credit, he was talented and it looked like he knew how to use magic. But he was fighting a dark mage who was wanted all over Fiore for his crimes of murder and kidnapping. A criminal Zankoku may have been, but he couldn't ignore the facts of his ruthlessness. He could chop a man in half for looking at him funny.

And the little fire mage, Natsu, was only a child facing off against the brother of said dark mage who was most likely as strong as him. A child shouldn't of even been caught up in this mess. Natsu seemed to have potential, but it meant nothing when fighting against a man who giggled at blood shed.

Blake could only hope both mages were in one piece when they made their way towards them. He would be damned if he let either one of them die on his watch.

Calling his men to drop the glyph surrounding the area they were fighting to prevent anyone from leaving, Blake rubbed his forehead feeling a headache come on.

". . . You can come out now." he narrowed his eyes looking away from the slight presence he could sense from close to the trees.

He tsked, closing his eyes in frustration at the hidden figure.

During the middle of chaos, Blake could feel the slightest feeling of being watched from the barrier he had commanded his men to put up with Jutsu Shiki. He didn't know who could possible be watching, but he didn't want to take any chances with a possible enemy joining the fray. Especially a powerful one.

Levy frowned as she finished applying the last her spell over the unconscious men, looking back at into the trees to see them rustle. Smoke slowly lingered from further in the forest to their feet, coating the dirt with ashy wisps. She coughed catching smoke in her lungs as more and more smoke began to filter all around her and the Rune Knights who stopped what they were doing to stare in puzzlement at the phenomenon.

Blake's eye's widened sensing a large heat coming from the opposite side of smoke, alarming him to a good guess of what was going to happen next.

"Everyone! Get down!" he shouted urgently just two large explosions flooded from both sides of the area. They all ducked low to avoid the scorching hot flames flowing from both directions, sweating from the intense heat above them that singed their clothes lightly.

Two bodies flew out of the smoke from both sides, two of them were a ragged and panting Natsu caked in dirt and grime, and the other was a bleeding and torn up Kosei with blood flowing from his head.

Landing in the middle the area surrounded by both Rune Knights and mages, were a badly burned Soko who's clothes were nothing but burnt rags, and Zankoku who looked like he had just got out of fighting a shredder. Both of them panting and struggling to stand straight up without falling to their knees in defeat.

Natsu winced, feeling his earlier wounds from his fight with Hugo come back to bite him as he held his right arm in pain. It still hadn't healed even with his dragon like regeneration.

Kosei smirked despite himself as he looked down at the Dragon Slayer at his side, "You look like shit, again." he chuckled.

"Look who's talking." Natsu grinned.

"Natsu!" Levy gasped happily as the smoke cleared away enough for her to get a clear view of him. He looked hurt and tired, but other then that, he looked fine.

"Huh?" turning to where he heard his name being called, Natsu smiled seeing Levy in one piece, "Hey, Levy-chan! Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." she nodded before frowning at both mages state of attire, "But, are you two alright?"

"Meh, I've felt better." Natsu shrugged, looking back at the doctor as he stitched some of his gashes with his magic, "What about you, shitty doctor. Feeling battle savy?" he snickered.

"Shut it." Kosei said dully, bonking the Dragon Slayer on the head for his rude nickname, "At least I don't look like I'm covered in shitty rags."

"So, your both alright?" Blake frowned in confusion, not believing that they made it without being mortally wounded.

"Give or take a few gashes." A few large gashed, but Kosei was a doctor. He could treat them both for their injuries and they'll be good as new.

Zankoku gasped in intense pain, blood gushing out of his mouth and neck where a deep wound should of killed him off. That damned glasses wearing son of a bitch! If he hadn't moved back away moments before he tried to end the fight, he would of laying a puddle of his own blood!

The doctor missed his wind pipe and jugular, only slicing through the skin of his neck. It was a miracle that he had missed any of his major veins and arteries. He still found it difficult to breath though. Zankoku struggled to swallow some fresh air, the blood flowing from his mouth making a mess on his clothes.

How did it come to this? Things were suppose to be so simple when he had thought back on his plans. All he was suppose to do was meet with his new employer and stop by the local Black Market to drop off some new toys to sell. Simple as that.

But that boy! Zankoku weakly growled as he glared at the pink haired mage with utter hatred in his eye's. If it wasn't for that brat getting in the way of breaking in his new toy, then he would of already been long gone! He would have had his fun and been on his merry way to his new job already.

Calling on a string of shadows to wrap tightly around his neck to stop the bleeding, Zankoku weakly stood back up, heaving his now blade-less ax onto his shoulder. His magic energy was wavering after the last spell Kosei had used on him. The man was truly insane! He lite the entire field on fire in an explosion that could of killed them both on the spot!

"Soko." Zankoku grimaced as he called on his brother who looked back at him with confusion. "Why didn't you kill the bad boy? How hard is it to kill one tiny, little mage!?" he shouted down at the cowering child-like man.

"B-But I tried! But he kept on kicking my head! It really hurt." he sniffed only to be punched in the face by an enraged Zankoku.

The older dark mage spat down on Soko, grinding his teeth in anger, "What the hell do I care if you got a couple of boo-boos from the gaki!? You should of killed him in my place, you stupid, fat, retarded piece of shit!" stomping down ruthlessly on the whimpering man, Zankoku rained blow after blow on his head, snarling in the process.

"Stupid shit! How many times do I have to teach the right way to kill!? Do I have to kill for you to get it right?!"

_'What a cruel, sick man.'_ Even Blake had to feel bad for the poor man under Zankoku's wrath. Enemies they may have been, but it was clear who was in charge in this relationship. Blood didn't seem to matter to Zankoku as it looked like he would even kill his own brother if he ever wanted to.

Levy looked down not wanting to see or hear what was happening before her. How was it someone could be so cruel to their own family? It wasn't right, no matter if they were enemies.

Digging his foot mercilessly into his cheek, Zankoku spat a wad of blood onto his brother's face before scoffing at the pitiful sight under him, "What a waste of fat. Even raising you as a killer hasn't fixed that fucked up head of yours. Your a disgrace to your parents. But you wouldn't know that, would you? We killed them after all!"

"_Karyu no Hoko/Hai no Tokotsu(Fire Dragon's Roar/Ash Skulls)!_"

Not even having enough time to widen his eye's in shock, Zankoku was blown off from Soko by a combination stream of dragon flames mixed in with dozens of toxic ash shaped as skulls. The two spells creating mini detonations within the torrent of flames that shook Zankoku's already wounded body horribly.

Falling back with burns all over his body, Zankoku struggled to lift his head up to glare at the two mages responsible for the spell.

Natsu and Kosei stood firmly in place from their spots next to Soko, both glaring at the slave shipper with intense anger as an aura of their magic flowed from their body from the strength of their feelings.

"How can you be so cruel?!" Natsu snarled, doing his best to hold himself in check, "He's your little brother, isn't he!? How could you threaten to kill your own brother!?"

"What do you care?" Zankoku coughed as smoke filled his lungs, "Weren't you fighting him minutes ago? Why do you care if he lives or dies by my hand?"

"Because watching by as a person twisted by their own blood into an ignorant killing machine is treated horribly by someone such as yourself is a sin in itself." Kosei answered stoicly.

Zankoku laughed as if he had been told the funniest joke in the world, "This is none of your business. What's with the sympathy for your enemies? Someone such as yourself should know that this world isn't some sweet little fairy tale, it's black and white and your defending a man who had killed dozens of people since he was eight. Your eyes must be blind to what you see. Nothing in this world is innocent." he chuckled grimly before getting back up with the support of his ruined ax.

"I don't believe that to be true." Kosei shook his head, taking a deep breath from his cigarette, "From what I can tell, you corrupted your own brother's mind with your twisted thinking, not even giving him a chance to discern between right or wrong on his own. You tainted his innocence and created a traumatized mind that sees good in evil. It's you who sees nothing but black. If we feel any sympathy at all at a man who had killed people because he was twisted into believing it to be fun, then it's only because we feel sorry for the poor young mind you have sinned."

"That's a nice way of thinking, doctor. But it doesn't change anything now." he grinned madly, snapping his fingers a second later, "My brother is loyal to me no matter what I do! Call him innocently twisted or traumatized, it doesn't matter! He's still a killer." he cackled just as Soko jumped to his side.

Natsu couldn't believe that after everything he had heard and saw, Soko was still standing by his brother's side as if nothing happened. "How could you go back to him?! He hurt you and said he would kill you, yet you still don't care!?"

"Aniki always says stuff like that." Soko smiled only infuriating the rose haired mage even more, "If Soko had to, he would die for Zankoku-nii if it meant he would be happy."

"That's right." Zankoku smirked, before placing his hand on Soko's pudgy shoulders, "I think you have his answer. And I do believe it's time we end things right here, right now!"

A powerful gale of wind kicked up around the two dark mages as they were shadowed by dark magic that twisted around them like a mini hurricane. The action got both Blake and Kosei to gasp as they recognized the feel of magic fusing together.

"That's right!" Zankoku laughed as the black gem on his chest and on Soko's head began to glow ominously, "Thanks to these Dark Magic lacrima implanted into our bodies we're not only given a power boost, but have the ability to perform magical fusion!"

_'Yunizun Reido(Unison Raid)!'_ they all thought in shock.

The next thing they all knew, black-purple crystals jutted out of their own shadows and the ones coming of the forest, trapping them all in an odd garden of cropping lacrima crystals that emitted a black mist.

"There's no escaping now! The moment any of you touch those lacrima is the moment you'll be caught up in its magical flood of black magic! And there's no eating this explosion! It's purely dark magic, no fire needed." grinning in victory, Zankoku gave the fools one last cruel grin before ending it all in one spell, "Now die! _Yunizun Reido:Shado Teien Ana(Unison Raid:Shadow Garden Mine)!_"

The crystals glowed dark purple as they were about to detonate all together. All Natsu and his team could do was close their eyes and pray for a miracle.

"I think I've seen enough." Chuckled a gruff almost grizzly voice.

Everyone's eyes were open in shock as the next thing they knew, a man with orange-red slicked back hair in a dark, tattered coat jumped in the middle of the fray and shattered the crystals trapping them with his presence alone.

"_Kurasshu:Shata(Crash:Shatter)!_"

Everyone was left to stare in astonishment watching as the combined spell was shattered into fine crystal dust that danced in the wind of the orange haired man's destructive spell.

"I-Impossible!" Zankoku gasped before he was face to face with the man responsible for the failure of his attack, "Who the fuck are you!?"

"Me?" the man chuckled before grinning at Zankoku dangerously.

"I'm a Fairy Tail mage!" he shouted proudly, thrusting his palm which glowed with bright white magic at both Zankoku and Soko, "_Kurasshu:Kohai no Keiro(Crash:Path of Devastation)!_"

_'Dammit! How can this happen again!?'_ Once again, Zankoku was left to helpless as a roar of magic flooded over his entire being. The bright white blast stinging his skin his skin almost like an acid eating away at his skin. Both dark mages screams of agony drowned out in the spells roaring blast.

The two were swept away as the white blast tore through a couple of trees in it's way before dying out. Leaving a path of torn up earth and Zankoku's and Soko's unconscious bodies laying in a pile of trees, their mouth's open in a silent scream and their eyes white as a ghost.

Gildarts sighed in relief as he got his unstable magic power under control. Well that was dramatic. If he didn't jump in when he had to they would of all been dead. And that was why he couldn't help but smirk smugly at the scene he made.

If the ladies were here they would have been swooning over his bad-assness like no tomorrow!

Turning back to get a look of the looks of awe from his amazing work in saving all their asses, Gildarts nearly fell face first to the ground when all he got was deadpanned expressions.

"What the hell with those expressions!?" Gildarts shouted angrily.

"It's nothing." Kosei tried to explain lamely with his hands up to ease the powerful mage in front of them, "But, I'm just confused why you took your sweet time to come to our aid just as we were about to die. It's pretty cliché, don't you think?" he sweat-dropped.

"Yeah, even I wouldn't do something like that." Natsu nodded with Levy doing the same.

"I knew I felt someone's presence. It's just my luck that it was a Fairy Tail mage." Blake smacked his head in annoyance, "I rather of been saved by any other guild besides you town wrecking idiots."

"Hey! I take offense to that!" Gildarts stomped his foot with a pout, "I'm not like all of my guild mates! I can control myself while on a job!" continuing to stomp the ground, Gildarts accidentally cracked the entire earth under them with his magic, causing everyone to sweat-drop as they tried to stand still.

_'That's control?'_

"Oops, my bad." the Kurasshu mage smiled nervously.

Ignoring the odd orange haired man as he jumped across the new cracked terrain, Kosei made his way towards Zankoku. He landed by the knocked out slave shipper, scoffing at his pathetic form before flicking a new scalpel into his hands. The small medical knife buzzed with green magic before it sliced man's chest, spurting blood in the process.

"Levy-chan." he called out to the small blue haired girl who quickly tried to make her way to the silver haired doctor. Slipping a vile with a needle out from his torn sleeve, Kosei began the process of taking the dark mage's blood while he waited for Levy.

Seeing as the girl had made her way to his side, he took a moment to rummage through his coat before throwing something to young mage.

"Still remember the characters needed to break the seals?" Kosei smirked as he lifted up the vile of Zankoku's blood to her face.

Levy smiled.

"Yup! All I need is some ink and we're ready to go!"

* * *

_(A week after defeating Zankoku and Soko)_

"Ow! My cheek!" Natsu whined as he was left helpless to something even he couldn't fight back against.

A crying women.

"Why do you have to go~!" Ella cried with waterfall tears coming down her cheeks as she hugged the rose haired boy for dear life.

After a whole long week of resting in Chisana Ki, Natsu was ready to leave on his search for Igneel.

When they had arrived back to town with the two dark mages in chains and seals, they had went straight to freeing the girls trapped within the Kuku Meru with the blood they had taken from Zankoku. They had to wait nearly two hours as Levy went to finding the right seals to break the charms loose before she had succeeded and released the girls trapped within after nearly two weeks trying to crack the slave charms. The girls were in a deep sleep when they had been freed, so Kosei went straight to work on checking up on their conditions.

Thankfully none of them had suffered any long terms affect of the charms except for some amnesia before being kidnapped. Kosei thought it was for the best that they didn't remember anything that might of happened before being put to sleep. If what Zankoku had said was right, they were better off not knowing what he might of done to them to break them in.

Natsu didn't understand what he meant by that, but was glad that they were alright. He still found it hard to believe that that many girls were sealed within such small objects. It confused him but he had shrugged it off as he helped Kosei lay the girls in some beds he ordered the knights to bring in.

After the girls had woken up, Kosei and Blake immediately went to trying to find their names and any other information that could have been of great help to track all their respected families that were most likely worried to death for their children. The odd mage, Gildarts, even stuck around to help with the girls, using his knowledge of the places he had been to help find the girls home town.

With Ella and Melody also lending a hand to comfort the scared, traumatized girls, Natsu and Levy had went around the village to spread the word out about freeing the girls. The news was already flying out to every town, city, and village in Fiore, even a couple outside of Fiore as they were stunned to find a couple of girls being foreign to the land.

It was a hectic two weeks for the small town of Chisana Ki. With their town being attacked by a mad man preaching about god and a flood of families barging through their towns door in a mad scramble for their daughters, they were lucky to even fit in a celebration at the end of the week to the group who has saved town and daughters.

The big town party was better then Natsu had imagined when Melody had told them about the celebrations as she removed the last of his bandages from the week's fights. All the towns people were going to attend with the families of those they has helped coming to enjoy the festival. Food was served, games were played in booths he had never seen before, and people danced as they all laughed and smiled the night away. Natsu had eaten so much food his belly had expanded like it was a balloon.

Of course he had also hung out with Levy throughout the whole festival. They had played games all night before they sat down to watch with the rest of the towns kids a small play about a knight and a dragon. It was some sappy romance play about a female knight and big bad dragon who was actually a prince transformed by an evil mage, but he has still enjoyed it. Especially the dragon.

But, like most things, things had to come to an end. While he had enjoyed the towns company and praise, Natsu knew that the more time he spent goofing around he was wasting precious time looking for Igneel. He had to leave some time and that's were find our favorite Dragon Slayer now. Out front the village entrance with nearly the whole town gathered to see the young fire mage off and buried within Ella's soft, firm cleavage.

. . . You had to enjoy the perks of being cute.

Sighing for the millionth time time this day, Kosei patted his wife's back in comfort as they said their goodbye's to the fire breathing kid. He'd hate to admit it, but he was going to miss the brat. It was certainly going to be a hell of a lot quite once he was gone.

"Yes, Ella dear, we get it. You're going to miss him." he tried to sooth his wife, glaring lightly at Natsu within his Ella's breast. Damn little bastard. That should only be him in between their!

Ella sniffed back her tears as she released Natsu from her embrace, wiping the few tears rolling down her cheeks with an apologetic smile.

"I'm sorry, Natsu. It's just," she hiccuped, getting the young Dragon Slayer to wave his arms panicky, not wanting to upset the kind women, "I'm going to miss you!" she wailed, her tears coming back full force and soaking Natsu's hair with their volume.

Melody rolled her eye's at her mother's over dramatic reaction to Natsu leaving the town. She had to of known that he wasn't going to stay forever. It wasn't like she was going to adopt him out of the blue.

"I'm still confused why you don't want to join, Natsu." Melody frowned worriedly, not liking the boy leaving the town to look for his father all by himself. "Gildarts-san did offer you a chance to join his guild. You could still look for your adoptive father while out on mission request in the safety of guild. I've heard Fairy Tail's a wonderful guild." she smiled.

"It sure is!" Gildarts laughed as he came by Melody's side to look down at the strong fire mage.

The kid, Natsu, was very strong from what he could. He could clearly see a lot of potential within him. Not to mention he was Dragon Slayer. How great would it be if walked back into the guild with a kid who knew Lost Magic? The old man would definitely have to buy him a round of beers.

Natsu shook his at the offer, giving the orange haired mage a small smile, "Sorry, but I have to find Igneel. From what you've been telling me about guilds, it sounds really fun. Meeting a bunch of strong mages, having a place to come back to after every mission, taking requests for Jewels, and making new friends, it all sound amazing!" he grinned excitedly, only to slowly have it replaced with a sad smile, "But, Igneel's the only family I've ever known. I can't just forget about him. He took me in when I was all alone and couldn't even walk to save my life. I have to put my all into finding my Tou-san, even if it means passing a chance to join a guild."

It was disappointing, but Gildarts understood. Many of Fairy Tails members was made up of orphaned children looking for a place to call home. If they had the opportunity to search for their parents if they were alive, many of them would jump at the chance and go running off to find them.

"Alright, but if you're ever around the area, don't be afraid to stop by." Gildarts grinned as he laid his arms around Melody's shoulder, getting the girl to blush embarrassingly, "As for me, I think I'll stick around a little bit and enjoy the towns native traditions." he thumbed up with a cheesy grin.

A moment later he found a small medical knife pointed at his jugular.

"And you won't be alive long enough to see how we treat creeps who get touchy with our daughters in my town." Kosei said dully as he narrowed an eye at the sweating Kurasshu mage. "Trust me, you don't want to miss it." he grinned lazily.

Giggling as her father scared off another pervert, Melody bent down to Natsu's level to present him a gift.

"What's this?" Natsu tilted his head in confusion as she handed him a brown backpack nearly as big as him. Opening up, Natsu found what looked like clothing within the bag with a couple of pots and food utensils.

"Well, I thought it be nice if you had some clothes to wear for the road. You can't always walk around half naked, you know?" she winked as he took out took a red long sleeved coat.

Watching as he tried it on, Melody began to explain the context of the bag, "I had Kaa-san help with stitching new clothes together and I added some pots and pans for you to cook with considering that you might already now how to hunt since you've lived in the wilderness your whole life. There are some eating utensils, so you don't have to eat like a beast too."

"Thanks, Melody-chan!" Natsu beamed, smiling gratefully at the brown haired girl.

Melody grinned softly at the mage before giving him a gently hug, "It's the best I could do for saving me from Zankoku and Soko. I wouldn't be here if you didn't walk by to stop them from taking me." she slightly sniffed.

"Don't mention it." he grinned before stepping away from the hug.

Giving the town one last smile, Natsu was ready to leave before a loud shout of his name stopped him in his tracks.

"Wait, Natsu!"

"Levy-chan?" Natsu whispered in surprise as he watched the young blue haired girl part away the crowd around him to run towards him.

"Wait!" she gasped as she skidded to a stop in front of him. "I'm coming with you!" she grinned only to get the Dragon Slayer to nearly fall over in shock.

"What?!" he shouted.

"What?!" the rest of the town shouted along with him.

"Why does my Levy-chan have to go too!?" Ella bawled loudly in her husbands chest, "This is all your fault, Kosei! You should of gave me more kids and maybe I wouldn't be feeling this way!"

_'Why me?'_ Kosei thought depressingly as Gildarts laughed his ass off behind him.

Ignoring the shouts of why from the people that knew Levy, Natsu couldn't help but frown at what she meant by leaving with him, "But, what about your friends? Aren't you going to miss your home?"

Levy nodded sadly, but still stood her ground. Ever since Natsu had told them all that he would be leaving in the morning, Levy had tried everything to get him to stay only to fail. She didn't want her new friend to leave. After all things they had gone through, she couldn't just forget about him once he left. The chances of him coming back as he looked for his foster father were slim and she didn't want to lose such a close friend.

So, with nothing else to think of, Levy had decided to just join Natsu as he roamed Fiore. He would need her help anyways. She didn't want to say it out loud, but Natsu wasn't the smartest mage around. She was sure she could be useful on his search.

"Yeah, I'm going to miss this place. Especially the Melody family who has always been there for me even before my parents passed away, but I want to see the world outside my home like from the stories I've read. And who knows? You just might be glad that I came along." she grinned as she fixed the pack behind her back.

Seeing that he wasn't going to be able to stop her from coming with him, Natsu sighed, smiling slightly as he felt a bit happy. He wouldn't say it out loud, but he was glad that he wouldn't be all alone. With a friend by his side, he just might even be able to double his search for Igneel.

"I can't stop you, can I?" he grinned back at the equally grinning Levy.

"Nope!"

"Then what are we waiting for!" Natsu shouted loudly with a shit eating grin plastered on his face. "Lets go!"

"Bye Natsu!"

"Take care of Levy-chan for us, will ya?!"

"Don't run into trouble!"

"Don't forget to stop by some time! Free meal on the house when you stop by next time!"

"Bye, Natsu-kun! We'll miss you!"

Laying his hands over his wife's waist as she laid her back against him, Kosei couldn't help but smile as he watched the two young mage's leave their site out into the big world.

"They'll be fine. I'm sure of it." he said softly to his wife as she wiped her eyes with a smile.

"I know. I'm just going to miss them." she sadly grinned.

"But, what are they going to buy food with?" Melody frowned as she thought about when they would stop by another town or village, "What if they want to rent a room? How are they going to pay for it all?"

Gildarts grinned as he answered the question himself.

"Don't worry. Natsu got credit for taking out the Dark Twins. I'm sure the little present I put in his back will help out." he laughed.

Watching as they left from their sights over the road out of their town, Kosei did his best to hide the slight frown on his face.

_'This is for the best. With Levy on the move, they won't be able to find her if they ever try to look for the Lost Ark.'_

* * *

Scribbling down on a small scroll in his hand, a strange man in white robes decorated with blue lines running down all over watched by from far the trees as a boy with rosy spiky hair and a girl with blue wavy hair by with grins of excitement on their faces.

The man wore an odd complex looking dark gold helmet over his face, shielding his facial features with gears running around the helmet. He wore a dark blue pants with white sandals and socks, his gloves the same white color only with odd markings written all over. A large black scroll was tied to his back as he laid on tree, continuing to write before stopping as he lost sight of the kids.

"Natsu Dragneel and Levy McGarden." the man spoke in a calm warped voice before rolling back his scroll and tossing it behind his back where it was sucked into the larger scroll like a vacuum.

"What an interesting start to your journey. I'm rather excited to chronicle your stories. Hopefully it will be just as interesting as the last centuries protagonist." he silently chuckled before fading away like an illusion.

* * *

**And I'm done for the night! Like I said, later tomorrow I'll get to posting the spell list for each chapter.**

**So who was surprised with Gildarts crashing the party? I was and I'm the writer!**

**Don't forget to review and if you got question don't be afraid to ask.**

**Till next time, NeoShadows fading in and out.**


	6. A Knight to Remember

**What's up, my people!? That's right! NeoShadows is back to update A Time Before Fairy Tales! Sorry about not giving this story some much needed love. I was kinda stuck in a rut after looking over the lack of reviews for posting a double chapter post. Make me think that nobody wanted to read my story anymore. But, meh, I'm over it. And back going strong!**

**Good news! I got a job! I've been looking for two years now and now I've got one. Don't think that it will interfere with my writing like school did. I've worked in my own schedule for the two. I'm not disappearing again. For a week, maybe. But that's only because I have to fix my computer again. Stupid piece of shiny plastic hardware. Has to be connected to a charger at all times for it to work right.**

**I've actually got a lot of reviewing to do for some stories I had found on my new cellphone while my laptop was messed up for two months. And I got to favorite, follow, and all that junk. I also got few friends on the site to say what's up to.**

**I'm back. Death has yet to take me to her sexy bedside. I will not be so easily seduced into her dark, sexy, skillful, grip! I'm a man, dammit! Besides, I'm not ready for a long term relationship with death. I'm fine with Life, thank you very much. She's sooooo kind. . . .and cutely hot and innocent. Growl, me likely.**

**. . . . . . . . .That wasn't weird, was it?**

* * *

_**Disclaimer: I don't own the rights to Fairy Tail, Hiro Mashima does. Glorious bastard. Actually, no, he is a bastard after what he did last Friday! I was crying for Gray's name for a good five minutes before my little dog bit my ear to shut up! I'm never reading manga with her again. She's sooo dramatic.**_

* * *

_**Chapter 6: A Knight to Remember.**_

* * *

**(Grand Council of Era)**

Ten figures clouded in deep dark shadows were seated in a circular formation around a large round eggshell white stone table, their eyes glowing with ominous white light that stared questioningly at the seated officer in the room that was the only one not hidden by darkness. The man sighed. This was the fourth time this had happen since the incident that had occurred two months ago. He felt a twitch in his eye he hoped his superiors didn't notice. It was all because of the flame breathing brat. Oh, the next time he meet him he was going to send him spinning non-stop till he puked out his little guts.

"Blake Vector, temporary First Head Captain under the Third Custody Unit while the current First Head Captain is on leave of illness, do you mind explaining to us why you are here today before the grand Magic Council?" Blake's head snapped up at the firm voice of the head of the shadowed table, the stereotypical wizard hat already telling him who was speaking to him.

Blake coughed into his fist, straightening himself up at the attention of the chairman of the Council, Guran Doma. Now wasn't really the time to be thinking of all the way's to punish the dragon boy, not when he was under the eye of the most powerful, influential people of Fiore.

"I presume it's about the same subject that we had discussed several times before since the Sin Incident, correct, Guran-sama?" Blake answered with a hint of monotone to his voice that only several of the members of the council could pick out. It seemed now a day's he was only being called into Councils chambers about the same old boring subject.

Natsu Dragneel.

Guran Doma nodded, reaching into his shadowed cloak a moment later to retrieve several clipped together papers with shocking amounts of writing addressed to property damage and several other counts of destruction. They were reports. Or to their eye's, bills. All addressed towards the Magic Council of Era. Yeah, they didn't look too happy about that.

Several of the councilmen and women grunted as the chairman tossed the pile of bill and reports addressed towards them to the slightly scowling black haired All Direction mage, finding himself sighing as he began to read over the papers presented to him while Guran began to speak.

"Five houses, thirteen food carts, half a church, a ruined, burnt plaza, several magic powered vehicles, and a train station? The boy has out done himself this time, Blake-san. That's nearly 500,00,000,000 Jewels all together! A boy his age shouldn't be capable of that kind of destruction despite being a mage!" the room shook with Guran's shouting, his eye's narrowing dangerously at the captain before him reading over the paperwork. "I ask you again, who the hell is Natsu Dragneel."

Blake remained calmed despite being under the eye of the leader of the Magic Council, he was already over the fear of his shouting after the third meeting and was starting to see that this definitely wasn't going to be the last time.

Setting down the reports with a noticeable scowl Blake looked back at Guran, "I told you before, Guran-sama, I have no inkling as to who exactly Natsu Dragneel is." he looked back towards the rest of the council with a thin line on his lips, "And why do I have to keep reporting back to your chambers every time the boy causes trouble? I have no relation of any kind with the boy."

"It's because you're the one who had discovered the boy in the first place, Blake-kun." a soft teasing voice answered from one of the councils seats.

Blake's eye twitched, "I still don't see the logic in that, Nana-sama."

"Are you questioning our orders, boy?" Guran asked with a sharp tone.

Blake shook his head, "No, I'm not." he frowned.

"It's just that I have more important matters to attend to then briefing you on what little I know about the boy. All I can tell you is that he's a holder of a Lost Magic art, Dragon Slayer magic, and a Fire Dragon Slayer at that. He's an orphan who says that he was taught the lost branch of magic from an actual dragon, Igneel, and is now traveling Fiore in search of his adoptive father with a friend who practices a type of magic known as Kotai Moji. That's it, that's all."

Several eye's widened in shock confusing the All-Directions mage as he looked up at Guran Doma in suspicion. What did he say? This was honestly the first time he had seen them in shock other then the time he had briefed them all in of the Sin Incident. What could of caused them to be in shock?

Closing his eye's Guran Doma let out a heavy sigh before dismissing the temporary first captain from their chambers.

"That will be all, Blake-san. You may go back to your work on tracking down your next lead. I presume that it will not be as much of a catastrophe as last time?" Guran raised a brow accusingly as Blake coughed into his fist in embarrassment.

Bowing, Blake left the council's chambers as he shut the door, already thinking of his next target of his Custody Unit's list.

From what he had read he was going to be dealing with another type of Fire mage. One that was said to come barking straight out of hell.

Silence reigned over the room in light of one small bit of information that the captain had seemed to of left out. It seemed there was going to be more trouble ahead of Fiore with that little bit of info.

Guran Doma leaned back into his chair with a tired sigh, rubbing his forehead fearing the worst as two words rang in his head, the tell tale signs of chaos already foreseeable in the coming future.

"Kotai Moji."

* * *

Somewhere southwest of the mountains of Mt. Hakobe and southeast of Clover town, two young mages were on a path that would take them to the nearest town near them for supplies.

It was perfect day for a walk anyway. Even if said walk involved walking miles and miles in the sun, that no matter how nice it was out, was still burning for one bluenette girl. It didn't affect Natsu though. Ah, the joy's of being a fire mage and a Dragon Slayer put into one. While he could still sweat the heat didn't bother him anymore.

Idiots had all the luck.

Sweating as she trudged through the smooth dirt path before them, Levy really wished that the trees planted along the side of the dirt road that cut through some woods offered more shade from the brilliant sun hanging over their heads. She fanned her dripping face with the wrinkly map Kosei had given her before leaving her town trying to cool herself down only to sigh. Why did it have to be such a clear sunny day today? Levy never thought she would ever dread seeing such a clear sky till she started traveling with Natsu. Now when she noticed not one cloud above the sky, she felt a shiver run down her spine knowing she had no protection from the sun.

Natsu grinned, marching along the path with eye's sparkling in the sun, seeming to not notice the sweating state of his new friend as he enjoyed the bright sunny day.

"Man, have you ever seen the sun so bright before? It's sooooo sunny out today! It almost feels as if Igneel had fired off a giant fireball into the air and its flames are reaching down towards us. Doesn't it feel amazing, Levy-chan?" Natsu grinned widely.

Levy could only nod weakly, catching Natsu's attention as he raised a curious pink brow.

"You know, if you're hot you can just write one of those fancy words above your head to protect against the heat of 'old shinny'."

That got Levy to stop with wide eye's, her lower jaw hanging down in shock.

Of course! She smacked her own head feeling stupid for not of thinking of it before. Natsu, while not too bright, still had a brain.

"_Kotai Moji: Kumo(Solid Script: Cloud)_!"

Sighing in content as a fluffy white cloud hung over her head to block the sun's hot ray's, Levy continued on their path a whole lot happier. Leaving Natsu a bit stumped noticing something different in his friend's magic.

"Wait, Levy!" Natsu shouted as he ran to walk beside, looking at her in confusion. "How did you do that?"

Levy pouted cutely, not believing Natsu had already forgotten that she had already told him about her magic.

"I thought I already explained it to you, Natsu. Remember? I told you my magic uses words to create things. Don't tell me you forgot." she sighed.

"Noooo." he shook his head with a frown, "You told me that if you write things, like light, then the word light would act like a light. Like when you cushioned my impact with those sharp things in my fight with Hugo. The word cloud stopped my impact, not an actual cloud like the one above your head."

Huh. Natsu was right. Levy really didn't get a chance to explain in depth her magic to the Dragon Slayer. Though she didn't really know all the things she could with it either. She never really liked using her magic too much, it made her stand out in Chisana Ki.

"Well, I guess I didn't go in too much depth about my magic, did I?" Levy smiled in embarrassment.

Natsu tilted his head in confusion.

"You're deaf?"

Levy sighed. She forgot, Natsu wasn't too smart.

Clearing her throat Levy tried to explain, "Kotai Moji is a magic that allows the caster to write words out of English text with the same properties as the written word. Like I said, if I write the word wood, then the word would be made out of wood. But," she held up a finger to get Natsu's attention as he listened, "My magic also allows me to do other things. Like the cloud over my head. When I write the word cloud, I can either create the word with the same properties as the form, or create the word in its real form using my magic."

"How?"

Levy shook her head, just as confused as Natsu.

"I don't know." she said as she looked up from her cloud to look at the sky, a small sad smile adorning her face, "My parents never really explained too much about it to me. All they said was that I could do anything with my words as long as I broadened my horizons."

"Sooooo," Natsu began hoping to break the little silence brought up at the mention of Levy's parents, "If I'm ever low on fire magic, you can just create some flames with your words?" seeing her nod, Natsu grinned happily, "Awesome! Now I can never go hungry again!" he cheered with glittering eye's that slightly freaked out Levy.

Levy smiled. These last few weeks had been the most fun she had ever had. While things weren't that easy seeing as they were still kids and were still learning about their magic, they were having fun learning about the big, wide world that was outside their homes together. Though getting missions from the small towns and villages they stopped by was difficult. Not many people hired kids unless they belonged to a good guild. They were independent mages, they didn't have any affiliations with any type of guild out there. And people didn't usually hire their kind since they appeared to be untrusted and aloof.

Thankfully they had found some work here and there. Not any type of missions involving hunting down bandits and thieves, but some small time missions like looking for some lost object, finding pets, helping the elderly, and other small time chores that were more suited for them.

She honestly liked those small missions the best. After all the chaos and intense fighting they had left behind when they had first met, Levy was happy with these simple minded tasks. No more fighting anymore bad guys for them. Now all they had to worry about was finding some old ladies cat stuck in a dirty gutter somewhere.

Natsu, on the other hand, found the missions boring.

No fighting? No beating up bad guys? No testing out his new spells? And worst of all, no excitement?

Bor-ing! Honestly, who liked finding some rare fruits and carrying some groceries for people who were too lazy to do it themselves? Not Natsu! He loved action. Adventure. And beating up bad guys!

Thank god they had ran into some bandits sometimes while they were working. Or he would've died of boredom.

It did bum him out though that Levy didn't share the same joy for fighting as him. Who didn't like busting up some bad guy ugly mug? It honestly puzzled him. Oh well, he mentally shrugged. Levy was still his friend, even if she didn't share his likes.

Looking overhead of the long stretch of road Natsu sighed seeing nothing in sight, but trees and dirt. Was it bad of him to be hoping to be jumped on by some thieves or bandits just to beat them up?

"Don't worry, Natsu," Levy smiled noticing her friend slump in boredom after walking for some five hours in the bright sun, "I'm sure we will reach the next town soon. With some of the Jewels we earned from the last few missions and the Jewels Gildarts-san snuck into your pack, we can relax a bit, maybe for a few days, before leaving to search for the next closest dragon sighting."

When Levy had decided to journey with Natsu she had promised to help the young Dragon Slayer search for his father, Igneel. She was hoping to see the world outside her town and help the one true friend she had made, that was all she thought at the time. With their talents it shouldn't of been too difficult.

Obviously she had forgotten said father was a giant scaled dragon that could tower over a village on its hind legs. And that dragons were said to be nothing but fairy tail creatures that no longer exist.

News and sightings of dragons were incredibly rare in this time. It was said that a few years ago that sightings of dragons were, while still rare, not as completely unbelievable as they were now. Levy had even heard about a man talking about seeing some enormous flying reptile like monster back in Chisana Ki when she was six. Dragons were mysterious beings that never showed themselves to humans, becoming myths to the world they inhabited.

Even Levy had trouble believing in their existence. After all, how could you believe in something that you couldn't see?

Now though, the sightings of dragons had completely dropped to zero. The rare, slim chances of catching the slightest glimpse of a dragon were nonexistent. It was almost as if all the dragons had disappeared. Vanished.

The had only gotten two leads to a dragon sighting since they had set off from her home town. Both of which were completely false in hindsight. It was clear that the two who had described the glimpses of seeing a dragon were mistaken in what they had seen. They should of known better.

But the look in Natsu's eye's had made Levy quickly shut her mouth and just follow the young Dragon Slayer. There was hope. As big as the eye could see.

She couldn't bare to break that hope. It would be cruel to do such a thing.

But he hadn't given up when he had found out that they were false leads. Instead, he smiled broadly and continued to move on to the next lead they could find without missing a beat. He didn't look down in disappointment, didn't shed a tear, didn't shout in anger, he just keep moving. Because Natsu was strong, stronger then her. And she admired him for that. That strength to keep moving and to never give up in the face of anything bigger then him.

"Are you alright, Levy-chan?" Levy quickly snapped out of her thoughts to find the young Dragon Slayer right in her face, staring at her in confusion and slight worry. She shrieked for reasons unknown to her as she jumped back from the close contact with her friend.

What was he doing? Popping out of nowhere right in front of her face with those worried eye's of his? Hadn't he ever heard of personal space?

Technically, no. Igneel never really thought of the subject as he was busying trying to drill his lessons into that hard headed rock his adopted son called a head. Even if he did, Natsu wouldn't of paid it no mind. All he cared about was practicing his Fire Dragon Slayer magic.

Natsu tilted his head, scratching it in confusion as he looked at his friend, "What's wrong? Are you tired or something?" he asked with worry. He didn't want his friend getting tired now. They still had quite a way to go.

"No, I'm not tired!" Levy shook her head embarrassingly, waving her hands around to diffuse the thought, "Why?"

"Well, because your face is red." Natsu pointed at his own cheek for emphasis, "And you seemed kinda hot and lost in thought, or something." he shrugged, moving closer to take a closer look at the blue haired girl.

Stepping into her personal space, Natsu frowned as he put his palm over Levy's blushing red face, closing his eye's in thought.

"Are you sure you're not sick, or something?"

_'H-He's t-t-to close!'_ To close, to close, to close! Levy struggled to gulp as Natsu was right in her face with his palm against her sweating forehead. Okay, he seriously needed to learn about personal space! Because this was turning awkward fast.

She didn't even know why she was blushing. Which was odd. Levy couldn't help but shake her head as she tried to erase the sudden foreign emotion she had never felt before. They had places to be going.

"N-No, no! I'm fine! I swear!" Levy waved her hands, sweating nervously with a shaky grin. Thankfully Natsu bought it, shrugging his shoulders as they continued walking the path ahead of them.

Levy sighed. God bless Natsu's thick hardheadedness.

"So, what's the new town we're heading to?" Natsu asked over his shoulder as he could catch the faintest whiff of numerous scents blended in together with flowers.

"Oh! Right. I guess I forgot to tell you, huh?" looking through the makeshift fan that was their map, Levy quickly spotted their new destination.

"The town's name is called Lupinus Town."

* * *

**(Lupinus Town, Center Square of Bloom.)**

The hustle and noise of the town was the first thing to greet the two young mages as they set foot into the busy town of flowers. Natsu stared in awe at the sights that greeted him. While they had stopped by a few towns on their journey, they were nothing compared to Chisana Ki. But this town was beautiful! Much better then the other crummy old towns they had passed by.

The town of Lupinus was one of three 'Genus Flowers' of Fiore as Levy had explained to him on the way. They were named along to link with the countries name of flowers as many believed that the three, along with the capital, Crocus, had been created at the birth of Fiore. Each on was named after another beautiful flower and had gone so far as to grow their respected genus plant all around their town.

Natsu could smell it the air. Yup, they didn't name it after a flower for nothing. It reeked of grapes. Not bad, but he liked the smell of roasted meat on an open fire way better. It was less, how could he put it, grape.

"Can you believe it?" Levy said in awe as they stood in front of what Natsu guessed was the market of the town. She gazed all around her, catching the eye of more then hundreds of different species of the flower growing in vines that stuck to the buildings and structures marvelously. It really was beautiful compared to her little home town.

The young Fire Dragon Slayer nodded his head absently, not really paying attention the colorful and smelly weeds, more interested in sorting out the scents of flowers, fruits, and other random smells with the mouth watering scent of fish. He could smell it in the air. There was grilled seafood abound and he was hunting it down.

"Fish~."

Moving her head back to her friend, Levy was slightly disappointed in seeing the pink head drool on about fish when they were surrounded by such pretty flowers. Not to mention the fact they were attracting odd stares from the towns people in seeing such a young boy produce such an alarming amount of liquid from his mouth. But, by now, she wasn't too surprised. Natsu was Natsu. End of story.

"We can eat some fish later." Levi said, snapping the Dragon Slayer out of chasing grilled sticks of cat fish in his head, "Right now it's important that we get the necessary supplies to last us another week or two till we reach the next closest town or city."

"Fine." Natsu grumbled, giving in for now as he followed the short blue haired girl into the market.

Levy quickly ran over the necessary list of supplies they needed for the week in her head as they browsed. Spices for the meat Natsu hunted down from animals, toiletries for, well, urgent business, some medical supplies, like first aid kits, nonperishable foods, like canned food, and anything else that would be helpful with living and surviving the wild. She made sure they separated the needs from the wants. Couldn't be wasting money on useless things, even though she wished she could read more books other than the ones she carried with her.

_'Let's see,'_ mentally counting the amount of currency on them and the amount they'll need to save so they wouldn't be completely broke Levy made a quick rundown of how much was needed to spend for the day,_ '15,000 Jewels sounds nice. And maybe another 800 Jewels split between me and Natsu for whatever we want, which means 400 for me and 400 for Natsu. Leaving us from a start of 90,000 Jewels to 70,700. And knowing Natsu, he'll probably grow bored and start a fight with some poor stranger and cost a good amount of 20,000 Jewels. Meaning we'll be paying off the amount with missions and hard labor. If we're lucky he doesn't break anything.'_

. . .Wow. All that in the mind of a ten year old. She really was smart for her age. Which brought to question what was going on in the mind of everyone's favorite little Dragon Slayer.

_'I don't like that guy. He smells funny. Oh, I could so kick his ass. He's got scrawny arms. That guy doesn't even look like he's ever thrown a punch in his life! Put down the chips, fat ass! Eww, he smells like booze. Looks like he's kicking his own ass, he looks like he's about to fall over! Oh, hell no! That guy did not just give me the evil eye! You're so lucky Levy-chan doesn't let me fight strangers, punk!'_

. . .

There was nothing much to say.

As the two mages continued their little shopping, with Levy pretty much doing all the purchasing and Natsu pretty much doing all the glaring down and challenging, the sounds of a loud murmuring caught their attentions. Well, not really. Is was more the loud explosion of magic that had piqued their curiosity.

Alright, Natsu's curiosity. Levy pretty much wanted nothing to do with any trouble.

Sighing as a wide grin popped out of Natsu's face, Levy decided it would be best of she continued buying their supplies. Natsu could handle it on his own. One of them had to see what was going on and he was more suited for combat then her, just in case some bandits had decided to cause trouble.

Again.

Seeing Levy reluctantly nod his way, Natsu gave loud whoop of excitement before taking off in a red blur. He really was bored.

Excitement! Adventure! Skull busting! All the things a child loved! Well, a child such as Natsu.

Skidding to a stop by a crowd of murmuring civilians, Natsu was suddenly hit by a wave of harsh smoke, nearly pushing him and the crowd back as they coughed in the aftermath of a violent explosion. Black smoke clouded their visions, hiding away the culprits behind the act of terror as Natsu ran through the crowds legs to see what was going on.

Shoving some of the stunned pedestrians in the way, Natsu broke through the crowd just as the smoke dispersed to reveal six men in black clothes marked by skeletons and holy crosses pestering a knelled down girl. She was surrounded by a small group of what looked like brilliant golden light crosses formed to trap her in a cage. The girl looked as if she was struggling behind the crossed bars, panting as she glared up at the biggest of the six men.

Said man was probably the leader. He stood at 5'10 feet tall wearing a black muscle shirt decorated with white gothic cross on the back. His face was partially hidden by a white bandanna covering his chin to his nose, made to look like mouth of a grinning white skull. He also wore white church pants, leather white cowboy boots, and black skull designed fingerless gloves. Taking a second to look at the other goons with the big guy, it looked like they all wore the same outfit. The only exception being that the leader wore a white cowboy hat that was decorated with a cross belt and a large blade tied to a sheath on his back.

"What an arrogant little girl." The leader of the group said with a sigh and an odd accent, scratching his buzzed cut hair in slight annoyance. "Nina tonta. That slight moment of arrogance was all I needed to cast _Espadas de Luz(Swords of Light)_. Now look at you." he frowned, flicking one of the crosses of light trapping the girl as it dinged, awarding him a tired glare from said girl.

"Hopeless. You should never let your guard down."

Moving forward, one of the oddly dressed men spoke up, "Silverio-sama, what do we do with the young Senora?"

Silverio scratched his chin in thought, "This is a problem. She may not know our motives, but we can't just let her go knowing of some of our projects. Then again, I never like killing children, it's just not right in the eye's of Dios." he frowned, his brown eye's flashing suddenly as a thought struck him. He snapped his fingers, signaling two of his men to run by the side of the caged girl as they unsheathed two white pistols in gold designs and proceeded to aim the barrels to the girls head.

"No, no, no, pendejos!" Silverio shouted in alarm, smacking his forehead with an irritated sigh.

"Don't kill her! We'll just take her prisoner and wait till Tetsu-sama makes a decision on what to do with her."

Leaning down forward as his men apologized and sheathed their guns Silverio gazed sadly at the young girl struggling to keep her eye's open.

"I'm sorry, little one. But I'll do my best and try to keep Tetsu-sama from performing an execution in the name of Dios." The girl glared with all her might at the man, failing as she fell on her stomach.

"Don't struggle. Espadas de Luz drain all the energy from their targets, making them incapable of fighting back. It's only a matter of time before all your energy and magic is drained away enough for us to take you away."

"Hot potato!"

"¿Que?"

Eye's widened as instincts kicked into high gear Silverio quickly reached behind his back to guard against the fireball coming straight at him. His buster sword protected his whole body from being charred by the explosion of flames blowing up in front of him, slightly pushing him back from the power put behind the ball of flames.

Silverio grit his teeth, parting the flames with a massive wave of his giant blade to get a better of view of the culprit. His right hand quickly caught the fist of the attacker in his moment of clearing the flames, revealing a spiky rose haired boy grinning widely in his face.

"¿Que demonios?" he said flatly at the strange sight. What an odd little boy. Did that fireball come from this little kid?

"You speak funny." Natsu frowned. What did the cowboy say? He was pretty sure it was insulting. It had to be!

Tossing away the kid in his grip, Silverio watched Natsu flip in the air to land a few spaces away from him with a challenging smirk. The sounds of guns cocking brought the smirk on his face to die as the Dragon Slayer looked up with a surprised cat like expression as he was surrounded by three men in similar appearance holding a gun to his head.

". . .What are those?" Natsu asked dumbly, bringing a round of face faults from everyone watching on.

The three men sweatdropped, staring at each other with deadpanned expressions before looking down at the kid who just barely reached their waists.

"You're kidding, right?" One of them said flatly, only to get Natsu to tilt his head in confusion.

"Nope! What are they? Toys?" he smiled up innocently.

It was almost too much. It was such an innocent question. The three men nearly had to lay down their weapons just to smack their foreheads twice at the boy's question.

"No! They're not toys! Their guns!" One of the men had enough and proceeded to shake the barrel in front of Natsu's face so that he could understand what he was saying, "They fire bullets! You know, small shells of metal that can kill with one shot? Didn't your parents ever teach anything about guns or anything?"

"Not really. Igneel taught me how to shot fire from my mouth though, if that helps." he said nonchalantly before lighting up two large flames on each of his hands, shocking the three men as he grinned, "But if those things can kill, then I don't think it be a good idea to have them pointed at my head."

"Dammit!" they cursed loudly, moving their guns back straight at the boy's head, "Shoot!"

"_Karyu no Koen(Fire Dragon's Brilliant Flame)_!"

A second too late. Consumed by a ball of fire large enough to capture all four of them, the three gunmen were unable to pull the triggers fast enough before an explosive fireball of dazzling flames erupted under the rose haired boy's feet, produced by the two large flames clapping together like a thunderclap. Their guns demolished by the flames and their bodies smoking all three fell back on their backsides with soundless shouts of pain.

Silverio watched on in shock as he watched three of his men rendered unconscious by the magic produced by the small boy. Eventually the flames faded away, leaving Natsu standing in a small crater produced by his spell and surrounded by the knocked out charred bodies of Silverio's men.

How old was this boy? He couldn't be older then ten! Yet he was able to defeat three men twenty years older then him with such ease. No child mage should of been capable of such a feat. It was just too incomprehensible to believe.

"Don't let your guard down, remember?"

Silverio's eye's widened hearing the voice before the sound of shattering glass brought him to whip his head to his prisoner.

Standing up with slightly shaken legs, a girl with beautiful scarlet hair done in a braid that reached her waist stood in the middle of the broken holy crosses holding her still. She wore a white dress shirt with a red tie around her neck that was protected by a silver-gray chest plate. She also wore shoulder guards, a long white skirt reaching her ankles, brown boots with light brown fur lining and dark blue leggings, and a medieval scabbard hung by a brown belt tied to her waist. Her brown eye's stared back at him with a seriousness that a child her age should of never possessed as she sheathed her blade from shattering his spell.

Did she break his holy blades with only a sword? How?! She shouldn't of had the strength to even stand up straight! And what happened to his men? They should of been guarding her while he was dealing with the rose boy.

"Sorry I'm late, Natsu."

Another one? Moving his head to the side, Silverio was stunned to see the two watching the scarlet haired girl had been snared by a set of chains in the form of iron text wrapped around them next to a little short blue haired girl. His men struggled to free themselves from their chains, only to waste their strength as they couldn't break the spell.

_'Que raro. Three unseen little factors and everything goes downhill faster than my mothers Friday night dinners.'_ How troublesome. Tetsu-sama wasn't going to be happy with this. They couldn't even meet up with their signed contacts for their next mission. The girl with the scarlet hair had made sure of that.

While he could easily deal with all three, and anymore mages that decided to step in to stop him, Silverio didn't have the time to play with some kids.

"Where do you think you're going, Silverio?" the scarlet haired girl said sternly, noticing the buster sword wielding man take a quick glance around his surroundings.

"Yeah! Don't think you can run away from a fight! I want action!" Natsu shouted, stomping his feet angrily as he blew steam out his nose like a bull.

A bull, how ironic.

Silverio chuckled at both the little mages staring him down as he gathered magic in his right hand, "I'm sorry, ninos, but I have to retreat for now. I've got much bigger things to deal with then you."

"_Santo Invocar: Bestia Brillante(Holy Summon: Brilliant Beast)_!" creating a shell of golden light in his right hand Silverio smashed the orb under his feet, cracking it in half and unleashing a bright white light to blind everyone watching. Squinting their eyes as the light faded away, they were all stunned to see the cowboy on the back of a large golden bull made of light.

The bull snorted, stomping its hooves in the dirt before bellowing a roar fierce enough to send the crowd gathered around the mages running away in fear of what it might do next.

"Adiós, Rosa, Escarlata, y Azul." Silverio saluted to Natsu, the scarlet haired girl, and Levy as he materialized a rope of light around the bull's neck.

"It was nice meeting you all."

The bull roared once more, kicking up a mini gale of wind that buffeted the three mages to struggle to stand still. Taking his chance, Silverio shouted at his bull before the beast of light charged out of the scene, rushing by the three as they disappeared in a another flash of bright light.

Erza silently cursed watching her target flee. If only she had been more careful in their fight. Maybe then she wouldn't of lost sight of the man before he cast his draining spell. The master was not going to like this.

Though it could've been worse. If it wasn't for the rose haired kid, then she would of been helpless as they took her away to their base powerless.

Speaking of which.

Turning around Erza was met with the eye's of a grinning Natsu staring straight at her. Freaked out and not wanting to be impolite to the one who had saved her Erza waved hello at the fire mage.

And it was at the moment that Natsu had decided to strike.

Erza didn't even how it started but she found herself blocking the hard fists from the rose haired boy a second later with the sheath of her scabbard. She frowned easily moving along with the boy to counter every blow he sent after her. Moving back a step she caught the boy's fist in her hand as he aimed to smash it into her face, flipping his whole body behind her a moment later before turning quickly to kick the fire mage away with a thrusting kick to his abdomen.

Natsu smacked roughly against the wall of a house, flinching slightly from the pain of the throw and the kick. She was strong! Just as he thought.

Grinning Natsu was about to shout back at the girl to fight him, only to swallow his words as a blade was sent flying after his head. His eyes went wide with shock, freaking out as it was too close and too fast to dodge. He closed his eye's, bracing himself for the pain.

**Thunk!**

The feel of cold steel pressed against Natsu's cheek, bringing him to open up his eye's to find the blade of a sword sunk close to his face in the wall. A lock of hair feel from the side of his face as he stared in fear at the slowly approaching redhead walking towards him.

_'Holy crap! I think she's going to kill me!'_ he sweated as he trembled in fear of the red eye glowing girl taking her time.

"Name."

"What?" Natsu frowned as the girl stood before him with her expression shadowed by her hair.

"Name. What is your name?" she asked again.

"Oh! Natsu, Natsu Dragneel."

"Natsu Dragneel." Erza smiled, looking up at the nervously smiling boy, her eye's softening for a moment, "I thank you for your help earlier, Natsu."

Was she thanking him? Natsu stopped freaking to stare back in confusion at the weird girl in the armor. Well thank Kami! He grinned back scratching his cheek bashfully.

"Nah, it was nothing. I was just looking for a good fight." he replied honestly, causing the smile on the girl's face to slightly twitch as he failed to notice.

"Really now? And why exactly did you attack me?" she continued to smile with her eye's closed.

Natsu seemed to take a moment to stop and think before he answered.

"Meh. You seemed strong. And that jerk ran off without fighting back. I wanted a fight and I thought you'd fight back." Simple as that really. He was bored. So bored! With his earlier entertainment running off on a shiny fat horse with a horn, Natsu was left with no one to fight. And he needed to vent out his boredom dammit! Bad things tended to happen when he was left with nothing to do for long periods of time. The fiery explosive kind.

Erza nodded, her calm expression never wavering even when she reached for her scabbard, something the young Dragon Slayer seemed to take notice off quickly.

"What are you doing-!"

**Smack!**

Levy winced from the side of the scene before her, shaking her head at her friend's very rude behavior to a girl that was just moments ago was captive to some thugs. He should've known better than to attack a girl for no good reason other then to fight. Which was why he deserved to lie on his back with stinging red mark on his cheek in the form of a flat blade.

Natsu groaned as he sat back up, his blurry eyes trying to focus on the shiny piece of metal poked between his eye's. Now if he wasn't so dizzy from the slap to the face, he would've sworn someone was pointing a sword to his face. But who would want to do such a thing to innocent old Natsu! He blinked, shaking his head to get a better look at what was pointed in his eye's.

Huh, so it was a sword. And it looked like that armor wearing girl was the one aiming to stab them out in one swift thrust. Which, now that he thought about it, was a scary thought.

"I see you have realized what you have done wrong." Erza smiled as she saw the fearful look in Natsu's eye's. She nodded, glad that the boy understood where he had gone wrong in attacking her. Though that didn't mean he was to go unpunished for his rude actions.

"Now, as for the matter of fitting punishment." she glared, a dangerous glint shining from her right eye that sent shivers down Natsu's spine.

By now Levy decided it would be best if she intervened. She couldn't have her friend dying on her now. Even if she did think he needed to be taught a lesson or two.

"I'm sorry for the trouble, Erza-san." Levy bowed as she ran up to her pink haired friend, smiling apologetic to the frightening girl.

"And you are?" Erza questioned with a curious brow.

"Oh, I'm sorry." Levy laughed nervously before introducing herself, "My names Levy, Levy McGarden."

"Levy? Well, nice to meet you, Levy-san." Erza smiled as she re-sheathed her scabbard, bringing Natsu a sigh of relief. For second there he could of swore he saw his life flash before his eye's in the glint of the sharp blade.

Natsu's eye's opened up in wide eyed shock suddenly feeling the scruff of his scarf strongly pulled on, bringing him to dangle before the brown eye's of his red eyed executioner as she lifted him off his feet. He sweated nervously. He was going to die, wasn't he?

"But I'm sorry to say that I can not allow your friend here to go unpunished for his rude greeting earlier." she said sternly, glaring at the trembling grinning fire mage in her grip, "I simply can not allow such behavior to go without teaching him a lesson in attacking others unprovoked. It's very rude to do such thing, especially after saving me from those dark mages."

Dark mages? "They were dark mages?" Natsu perked up, almost grinning happily at the thought of fighting more bad guys.

Levy saw the look, "Don't even think about it, Natsu! You promised no fighting before we got here!" she chided, pouting as she shook her finger at the dangling Dragon Slayer.

The scarlet haired girl rose an amused brow seeing Natsu visibly deflate. So the blue haired girl was the one in charge? How amusing. Looked like she was the brains of the two from the way he listened to her.

Though that brought the question of who were they?

"Yes, they were dark mages." Erza decided to answer, still not letting go of Natsu as he mumbled silent curses. He did not like being treated as a child, dammit! "My mission was to investigate the sudden rise of crime in this town before I was ambushed. It seems that they may have been the cause for all the merchant hijacking, ransacking, and pillaging popping everywhere in town. And it seems they had noticed my investigating the towns people. We fought for a bit, and I had the advantage for a while, but my own arrogance got the best of me and their leader struck with some type of binding spell." she was ashamed of that. If only she had paid more attention to their leader. The Master would be disappointed. She deserved to be struck for her own arrogance.

"The rest, you know seeing as you both had saved me from my own mistake."

Levy nodded, "No need to thank us, Erza-san. We were glad to help."

"I'm not! I save this chick's ass and what do I get? My head nearly stabbed through and a slap to the face! What kind of thanks is that!?"

Levy sighed watching as Erza's face twitched trying to control her temper with the disrespectful boy in her grip. Sometimes she really wished he could learn when to keep her mouth shut.

"I think I've decided on what your punishment shall be." Erza said coldly, bringing chills down both young mages backs.

And unknowingly, their wallet.

* * *

**(Moments later, DogHouse Deli.)**

The smell of fresh loafs of bread, sweet pastries, coffee, and tea filled the small wood themed restaurant. The seats were made out of trees, smoothed down and polished with nice, soft, firm red cushions for a nice load-of-your-feet feel. And the furniture was the same, creating a nice wooden cabin vibe to the atmosphere. Magical lacrima supported by a gravity spell lite up the pastry shop powered by the flame magic contained in the crystal and shined off their oval windows. Sweets and pastries could be seen in display all around the place, tempting many in trying out the delicious, mouth watering treats. All in all it was Lupinus town's best pastry shop. It was certainly one of the best in Erza's opinion.

And one of the most expensive.

"All our money." Levy sniffed as she looked down to their wallet of Jewels, now reduced to a one-third of the amount the originally had when the entered the town of flowers thanks to the red headed knight.

In order to make up for Natsu's rude behavior in attacking Erza the two were forced to treat the stern girl to lunch seeing as her mission had taken her away from eating any breakfast in the morning or anything in the afternoon. Much to Levy's grief the girl had one hell of a sweet tooth that would make the tooth fairy keel over and fork over her cash. And she was not shy in ordering anything too expensive. After all, this was Natsu's punishment for attacking a young lady such as herself. Erza was never one to hold back in her punishments. He was lucky she hadn't done it the hard way.

Levy was really wishing she had just beaten him up to a pulp. He would've learned better than this.

"WHAT!? What do you mean you don't serve any fish!? This is crazy!"

**CRASH!**

Dozens of porcelain plates and teacups shattered along with the panicked shout of fear as one Dragon Slayer grew outraged. Oh yeah, a beating would of worked just fine.

Erza sighed putting down her sweet tea in the middle of her meal. And here she was having a relaxing lunch of sweetbreads and a nice deli sandwich. She was hungry. Gathering information in a big town like Lupinus took a lot of time and effort, especially when it came towards information about her clients enemies. She couldn't afford to slip up, even though that's exactly what she did when confronting them while they were all in a group.

So nice a meal was a given after escaping their clutches. It was just too bad that her 'savior' had tried to ensue a fight not a second after her rescue and was now terrifying the waiter for fish at the moment.

"Natsu! Stop misbehaving right now, or so help me I'll crush your skull with a giant hammer!" she said sternly, narrowing her eye at the blinking pink head gripping the sweating blonde haired waiter by his collar.

Natsu wisely listened to the scary knight. He shivered feeling oddly scared of the glint in her eye. She was definitely strong and for once he didn't want to see just how strong she was.

Nodding her head Erza happily went back to her strawberry cheesecake with gusto, seeming to miss the stunned look on Levy's face.

_'He actually listened!'_ That was rare for Natsu. The only reason he even listened to her was because they were friends. Anybody else that would try to tell him what to do was usually greeted to by a roar of fire to the face. She really was scary.

Grumbling to himself as he took big bites out of the sandwiches he had ordered for himself, which sadly had no fish, Natsu continued to stare down the redhead sitting across from him and Levy.

Erza rose a brow curiously, "Is there something you want, Natsu-san?" she asked catching him eying her.

"Natsu."

"What?" she frowned Natsu nodded his head with a grin.

"Call me Natsu. I don't like being called -san. It's too formal."

She shrugged as she took a bite out of her cake, "Alright, Natsu. Is there something you need? I don't mean to be rude, but I don't know if I like you staring at me. The last time you did that you attacked me without warning." Hopefully he didn't try anything like that while she was eating or someone was losing an arm.

"You said you were on a mission, right?" Erza nodded, "Then does that mean you're a mage too?"

"Why yes, I am a mage. I actually belong to a guild full of mages such as myself."

"So there's more strong people like you!" he shouted excitedly.

Erza tapped her cheek in thought, "Well, I guess you could say that. There are a number of potentially strong mages back at Fairy Tail. Why do you ask?"

"Because I want to fight someone strong! All the guys I've been fighting with so far were wimps that carried weapons and could only shoot a few boring spells!" he pouted, looking away as he thought back to his last few encounters with bandits and thieves.

They were really boring. Though it didn't help that he was trained in fighting dragons. A kid he may have been, but he was a kid taught under the wing of a dragon that could burn a whole large scaled town down with his breath alone. Measly little bandits had nothing against dragon training!

That and he hadn't had a good fight since the whole Chisana Ki thing with the muscled headed monster and the two dark clowns.

Levy, on the other hand, suddenly perked up at the mention of the familiar guild name.

"Fairy Tail? You mean the guild Gildarts is in?" Levy smiled at the thought of the Crash mage.

"Oh? You know Gildarts?"

"Of course! If it wasn't for him we wouldn't be here right now." Just remembering their encounter with the Dark Twins brought goose bumps.

Natsu scoffed as he scarfed down a chocolate cake, "I'm sure I would've handled Zankoku and Soko if I wasn't still injured from my fight with Hugo."

Erza's eye's widened at the familiar names knowing she had heard of them before the last time she was at the guild. _'Zankoku, Soko, and Hugo. Didn't Gildarts mention those names in his tale of his last adventure?'_ When the famous Crash mage had returned from his latest S-class mission he had stopped by a nearby town for a rest. It was there that he had met a couple of Rune Knights cornered in by some dark mages by a mine spell of sorts. Shortly after saving the knights and some kids caught up in the mess he had discovered that the town he was walking towards had gone through its fair share of troubles the past few weeks.

Thankfully the trouble had ended with the defeat of the Dark Twins and had decided to help out in fixing the town where they had told him of all that they had gone through.

And now that she thought back to it Gildarts did mention two young mages who had been in the center of all the was going on. One that could fight with fire that sprouted out of any part of his body and a girl who could bring life to her words.

"Crazy old man, nearly busted my head open when I challenged him to a fight." Natsu growled, licking the last of the icing off his face before looking back at the redheaded girl. Or more specifically the icing on her own face.

"Are you going to eat that?" he asked leaning over to lick the tasty sweet off.

Erza blushed in embarrassment before doing what came naturally to her. Backhand!

"Idiot!" she roared easily backhanding the innocent fire mage too close to her face into another table of lunching civilians.

"Oww! What was that for-Hey! I thought you said you didn't serve fish!? This guys eating a deli sandwich with grilled salmon!" Natsu furiously yelled towards the same waiter he was only moments ago terrorizing.

"I'm sorry, young monsieur! But we ran out moments ago!"

"You dirty son of-!"

"So you two are the incredible young mages he was talking about?" Erza smiled, deciding to ignore the steaming rose haired boy in his bullying for now as she talked to the sighing Levy.

"He mentioned us?" Levy asked in confusion.

"Yes." she nodded, "When he came back from his last mission he engrossed us all in the tale of Chisana Ki. And in that tale he mentioned two mages no older than us who were directly involved in all the madness with one of those mages somehow being capable of bringing down a high bounty dark mage by the name of Hugo Stonefist." looking over the corner of her eye she could only smirk as she watched the young fire mage chase around the panicking blonde waiter for fish, "I'm guessing that little Natsu over might be the one he was referring to as hard as it is to believe. Which means you're the smart blue headed girl he mentioned."

"Well, I'm not that smart." Levy smiled feeling flattered that she mentioned in a high light, "I'm nothing really. It's Natsu who's the special one." she grinned remembering the first time she had met him, "Even if he can be an idiot sometimes-"

"Feel the wrath of my flaming fists! You dirty no-fish-bastard!"

"There is more to him then meets the eye." she continued to grin even as she sweatdropped at the sounds of smashing and shattering going on around her.

"I'll try to believe that." Erza nodded to herself. Though she didn't know if she could really believe the girl seeing as said boy was seconds away from burning down the whole deli/pastry shop.

Natsu smiled happily to himself as he walked away from the frizzled and mildly steaming man with a nice plate of three grilled bass and dipping sauce. Sure it wasn't salmon, but it was still fish and that's all he cared about. And who said violence didn't solve everything?

"I assume you two aren't in any guild, right?" Erza asked as Natsu went back to his seat to devour his new lunch.

"Not really." Levy answered as she thought of the idea of a mage guild, "We don't really have time to join a guild at the moment."

"Really? Why not?" Erza frowned, not understanding why anybody wouldn't want to join a guild. You got better missions and a place to come back to after a long day of working. It was an ideal home for mages.

"Because we're on a search." Natsu decided to answer with half a fish in his mouth as he talked with his mouth full.

"A search? For what exactly? I'm sure I could be of help if it was simple as looking for something you lost."

Natsu shook his head, not bothering to swallow his food as he continued to talk.

"Not something, someone. I'm not for my Tou-san, Igneel." he said with a tint of sadness before gulping down his meal with a sigh.

"Your Tou-san? Did you lose him or something?" That was odd. Erza thought that the two mages were orphans like herself and most of the young mages in Fairy Tail. No sane parent would leave their children lost. How long had his father been missing?

The question stopped Natsu as he took a moment to think for himself.

He honestly didn't know how to answer the question. Did he lose Igneel? No, he didn't because he was always at Igneels side. But he couldn't of abandoned him, could he? Natsu angrily bit his teeth at the thought before banishing it away. His Tou-san would never do that! Deep down in his heart he knew Igneel would never think about abandoning him by himself. So, what other options did he have left? Did he have to leave? Was he taken away? Or did he just disappear?

It was all so confusing. Natsu couldn't understand what could of happened to Igneel. And just thinking about it made him depressed.

"W-Well I don't know?" Natsu looked down trying to hide the pain at the thought.

"What do you mean?" Erza didn't like the look on the usually grinning boy. While she hadn't know him long she knew that he wasn't one to upset easily. What could of made him upset?

"It's nothing, really." he sniffed before grinning.

"Besides, I'm a Dragon Slayer. I'm sure I can find the old bastard."

Erza knew he was just trying to be tough, but let it drop with a sigh. It wasn't any of her business. She had her own problems to worry about anyway.

Though the term Dragon Slayer was new to her. She had never heard of any Dragon Slayers before. Did that mean they had the ability to slay dragons or were they as strong as dragons? What an odd saying.

"What about you, Levy." Erza asked the shy blue haired girl, "Have you ever considered joining a guild?"

"I don't know." Levy answered, not really knowing how to answer the question since she never thought about it before. "I'm just following Natsu, helping him look for his father and seeing the bright new world." she smiled.

"You could do the same in a guild. Not to mention all the new knowledge you can learn from some of the senior members." she said before taking a sip of her tea, "You two should really consider joining the guild in the future. It may just help the two of you."

"I don't see how." Natsu yawned, burping as he finished the last of the fish.

"Well, you should consider it sometime." finishing the last of her meal, Erza smiled at the two young mages before moving to leave.

"It was a pleasure meeting you two, but I must continue on with my mission. I still have to disband the group of mages causing trouble in this town before I leave."

"Yeah, we got to look for some missions to fill our pockets before we head out." Natsu grinned as he jumped out his seat.

Levy nodded, "Hopefully we'll find some good ones around town. Maybe some of the local guilds will hand out some missions for us."

"Then I hope to you two again." Erza smiled.

Waving goodbye, the three mages went their separate ways on their own courses.

It wasn't the last they would see of each other though. Things were about go down in the town of flowers.

* * *

**( Ruins, The Blooming Grove.)**

Silverio bowed before his master in the falling apart hall of what was once a beautiful church, now a shattered, broken ruin of holy mass.

"Tetsu-sama. We seemed to of been compromised."

Tetsu hummed in thought as a spark light up his black horns, his facial expression hidden by the porcelain black mask on his face as he pondered the situation. He sat on a what was one a beautifully designed seat meant only for the priest, resting his head on his fist as he listened to his second hand brief him in on the morning's reports.

"I'm rather disappointed, Silverio." he sighed deeply causing the buzz cut Hispanic to flinch at the tone of disappointed in his voice, "I don't have time to deal with the nuances getting in the way of Alastor's plans in this town. While my division is working on gathering the supplies needed here, I cannot personally get involved. There is a much more important matter I must deal with at the moment."

"I understand." Silverio nodded with a heavy heart as he got up.

"Do you now?" Tetsu said sternly only to meet his second in command's steel gaze.

"I will eradicate the Fairy Tail mage sniffing around the town, personally." with a heavy tone of regret before standing back up with a salute. His body sparked with luminous light before he vanished in a zap of light streaking out of the dark church remains.

Tetsu sighed as he rested against his seat. It wouldn't be long now till they had the third piece of the puzzle in their possession. Then, all they would need was the key to the holy ark.

The Bud of Lupinus would be there's, and no one would be stupid enough to stop them.

Well, no one but a boy with a head full of lead.

* * *

**Finished! Chapter six complete!**

**Again, sorry for not updating. A writer shouldn't stop writing just because of the lack of review they received for their story. We write to write, not because of reviews. I promise to never abandon any of my stories, so don't think any of them are dead. Have faith.**

**Oh! You may of noticed that I don't have a spell list set up, or the ones for the last chapters. I don't know. What do you all think? Do you want the spell lists up, or not? I'm debating with myself whether or not to keep them in the story. If so, then I'll just decide to listen to the reviews and finish the ones for the last chapters and this one once I update again in a week or two. If not, then I'll get rid of them.**

**And if you don't understand some of the words Silverio used, don't worry about it. Try looking them up. It's always nice to learn something learn. But if it's too much, I'll set up a translation at the end of a chapter for new words if you don't understand if you review in asking for it.**

**What do you think of the chapter? What will happen in Lupinus Town? What trouble will our heroes face in the next few chapters to come? Will they meet anymore familiar faces in this new arc? And what is Alastor's plan for the town of flowers? What is the Bud of Lupinus and why does he want it? All will be known in time.**

**But, till then, read and review. It's common courtesy.**

**NeoShadows fading in and out.**


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